THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 


IN  MEMORY  OF 

PROFESSOR 
EUGENE  I.  McCORMAC 


•  <* 


A  SHORT  HISTORY 


OF  THE 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA 


BY 

HENRY   CABOT 


'THE  LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  GEORGE  CABOT"  "THE  LIFE  OF  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON" 
"THE  LIFE   OF  DANIEL   WEBSTER"  "STUDIES  IN   HISTORY"  ETC. 


REVISED    EDITION 


NEW    YORK    AND   LONDON: 

HARPER    &    BROTHERS,   PUBLISHERS, 
1900. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1881,  by 

HARPER    &    BROTHERS 
In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 

A II  "if/Ms  reserved 


TO 

HENRY   ADAMS 

IN  TOKEN  OF  GRATITUDE  AND  FRIENDSHIP 
THIS  HISTORY  IS  DEDICATED 

fi.  C.  L. 


I 


PREFACE. 


THE  history  of  the  thirteen  American  colonies  is  at  best 
fragmentary  and  provincial,  and  does  not  assume  the  impor 
tance  and  value  of  the  history  of  a  nation  until  the  meeting 
of  the  Stamp  Act  Congress  at  New  York  in  the  year  1765. 
But  who  and  what  the  people  were  who  fought  the  war  for 
Independence  and  founded  the  United  States — what  was  their 
life,  what  their  habits,  thoughts,  and  manners — seemed  to  me, 
when  I  began  my  study  of  American  history,  questions  of  the 
deepest  interest.  They  were  questions,  too,  which  appeared 
to  me  never  to  have  been  answered  in  a  compact  and  com 
prehensive  form;  and  this  volume  is  an  attempt  to  supply 
the  deficiency.  The  chapters,  therefore,  which  purport  to  de 
scribe  the  various  colonies  in  and  about  the  year  1765  repre 
sent  the  purpose  of  the  book.  They  have  been  worked  out, 
in  the  course  of  several  years,  from  a  mass  of  material  which 
has  been  collected  in  all  directions,  and  which,  although  wholly 
in  print,  is  in  many  cases  as  generally  unknown  as  if  it  still 
slumbered  in  manuscript.  To  these  chapters  I  have  append 
ed  notes  —  mere  references  —  partly  to  support  conclusions 
which  I  thought  might  be  questioned,  and  partly  to  aid  other 
students  in  the  same  field.  The  notes  represent,  however, 
only  a  portion  of  the  books,  tracts,  and  newspapers  actually 
consulted.  There  are  many  titles  in  my  note-books  of  works 
which  yielded  nothing,  and  of  others  again  which  offered  mat 
ter  that  had  to  be  laid  aside  from  mere  superabundance  of 
material :  only  the  most  valuable  and  important  figure  in  the 
notes. 

When  I  had  finished  these  chapters  for  which  the  work  was 


vi  'PREFACE. 

undertaken,  and  which  have  been  in  part  delivered  in  the  form 
of  lectures  before  the  Lowell  Institute  of  Boston,  I  felt  that  it 
was  essential  to  my  purpose  to  give  an  outline  of  the  political 
history  of  each  colony,  in  order  to  present  a  complete  picture 
of  the  various  communities.  These  sketches  are  as  condensed 
as  I  could  make  them,  although  they  have  run  to  a  far  greater 
length  than  I  hoped  would  be  necessary.  They  make  abso 
lutely  no  pretence  to  original  research,  but  are  merely  my  own 
presentation  of  facts  which  ought  to  be  familiar  to  every  one. 
For  this  reason  I  have  thought  it  entirely  superfluous  to  en 
cumber  them  with  notes. 

The  question  of  arrangement  was  not  an  easy  one  where 
thirteen  distinct  histories  were  involved ;  but,  after  much  re 
flection,  I  decided  to  deal  with  each  colony  by  itself,  and  give 
its  complete  history  down  to  the  year  1765.  This  plan  is 
open  to  the  charge  of  repetition ;  but  it  seemed  to  me  better 
than  flitting  from  one  colony  to  another,  and  thus  distracting 
the  reader's  attention  more  than  was  absolutely  necessary. 
The  three  concluding  chapters  are  added,  like  those  which 
treat  of  the  political  history  of  each  colony,  merely  for  the 
sake  of  completeness,  and  aim  only  to  be  a  concise  outline  of 
the  events  which  resulted  in  national  existence. 

Many  of  the  statistical  details  are,  as  I  am  only  too  well 
aware,  very  dry  reading,  and  the  same  may  be  said  of  the  po 
litical  history  of  some  of  the  colonies.  It  may  be  possible  to 
make  the  political  history  of  every  colony  in  turn  picturesque 
and  exciting ;  but  I  know  that  in  regard  to  certain  of  them, 
and  in  many  portions  of  my  history  which  could  not  be  omit 
ted,  this  was  a  task  far  beyond  my  powers.  Yet  at  the  same 
time  I  cannot  but  feel  that  the  condition  of  the  people  of  the 
American  colonies  in  the  years  preceding  the  Revolution,  how 
ever  insufficiently  I  may  have  dealt  with  it,  is  a  subject  of 
deep  interest  and  importance.  I  can  only  say  that  if  any 
thing  I  have  written  is  of  assistance  to  students,  or  helps  any 
one  to  a  better  understanding  of  a  nation  and  of  a  history 
of  which  we .  may  be  rightly  proud,  I  shall  feel  more  than 
repaid. 

HENRY  CABOT  LODGE. 

EAST  POINT,  NAHAWT,  1881. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 
VIRGINIA  FROM  1606  TO  1765 1 

CHAPTER  II. 
VIRGINIA  IN  1765 41 

CHAPTER  III. 
MARYLAND  FROM  1632  TO  1765 93 

CHAPTER  IV. 
MARYLAND  IN  1765 112 

CHAPTER  V. 
NORTH  CAROLINA  FROM  1663  TO  1765 132 

CHAPTER  VI. 
NORTH  CAROLINA  IN  1765 148 

CHAPTER  VII. 
SOUTH  CAROLINA  FROM  1663  TO  1765 158 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
SOUTH  CAROLINA  IN  1765 172 

CHAPTER  IX. 
GEORGIA  FROM  1732  TO  1765 187 

CHAPTER  X. 
GEORGIA  IN  1765 197 

CHAPTER  XI. 
DELAWARE  FROM  1609  TO  1682 205 

CHAPTER  XII. 
PENNSYLVANIA  FROM  1681  TO  1765 211 


vjii  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
PENNSYLVANIA  AND  DELAWARE,  1765 227 

CHAPTER  XIV. 
NEW  JERSEY  FROM  1664  TO  1765 263 

CHAPTER  XV. 
NEW  JERSEY  IN  1765 273 

CHAPTER  XVI. 
NBW  YORK  FROM  1609  TO  1765 285 

CHAPTER  XVII. 
NEW  YORK  IN  1765 312 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 
MASSACHUSETTS  FROM  1620  TO  1765 341 

CHAPTER  XIX. 
CONNECTICUT  FROM  1635  TO  1765 373 

CHAPTER  XX. 
RHODE  ISLAND  FROM  1636  TO  1765 385 

CHAPTER  XXI. 
NEW  HAMPSHIRE  FROM  1623  TO  1765 397 

CHAPTER  XXII. 
NEW  ENGLAND  IN  1765 406 

CHAPTER  XXIII. 
PREPARING  FOR  REVOLUTION  :  FROM  1765  TO  1776 476 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 
THE  WAR  FOR  INDEPENDENCE  :  FROM  1776  TO  1782 501 

CHAPTER  XXV. 
PBACE:  1782..  .  517 


CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE 623 

INDEX..  .  537 


9  Cape 


JR. 


THE   COLONIES 
NORTH 

AT    THE 

DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE. 

Scale  of  Miles 


-30 


o    so 

i 


100    150    200    260    300    360 


HISTORY 


OP  THE 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA. 


CHAPTER  I. 

VIRGINIA  FROM  1606  TO  1765. 

WHEN  independence  was  declared,  Virginia  stood  at  the  head  of 
the  English  colonies  in  America.  She  was  the  most  important  polit 
ically,  as  she  was  the  oldest  and  the  most  populous  of  the  provinces. 
Virginia  was,  moreover,  the  leader  and  representative  of  one  of  the 
three  great  political  groups  which  formed  the  thirteen  colonies,  and, 
as  such,  she  played  a  leading,  and  for  many  years  a  controlling,  part 
in  the  history  of  the  United  States. 

The  colonial  history  of  Virginia  may  be  divided  into  three  periods. 
The  first  extends  from  1607-1617,  and  is  occupied  with  the  mere 
struggle  for  existence.  The  second  is  a  period  of  political  and  mate 
rial  development,  covering  about  sixty  years.  The  third  and  longest 
lasted  for  a  century — from  1677  to  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution — 
and  was  a  time  of  material  growth  and  political  torpor.  In  the  last 
two  periods  the  colony  closely  resembled  the  mother  country,  not  only 
in  social  habits  but  in  history.  England  rested  after  the  terrible  con 
flicts  of  the  seventeenth  century,  and  so  did  Virginia.  If  Walpole 
could  boast  that  during  his  administration  England  had  no  history, 
the  same  remark  applies  with  tenfold  force  to  Virginia;  for  the  politi 
cal  repose  of  the  parent  state  became  stagnation  in  the  colony.  But 
the  forces  destined  to  convulse  the  world  before  the  eighteenth  cen 
tury  closed  were  even  then  gathering  strength,  and  the  political  ener 
gies  which  made  America  foremost  in  that  great  movement  were  re 
cuperated  during  these  years  of  slothful  inaction. 

1 


2  HISTORY  OF  THE 

The  earliest  incidents  in  Virginian  history  and  in  the  English  colo 
nization  of  America  carry  us  back  to  the  glories  of  the  Elizabethan 
era,  to  the  days  of  Marlowe  and  Shakspeare,  of  Burlcigh  and  Wal- 
singham,  of  Essex  and  Leicester,  and  Francis  Bacon.  In  that  great 
period,  the  most  conspicuous  representative  of  a  large  class,  and  the 
typical  man  of  action,  was  Walter  Raleigh,  whose  name  is  inseparably 
connected  with  the  first  efforts  of  English  colonization  in  America. 
There  is  no  need  to  dwell  upon  the  ill-fated  attempts  to  found  a  set 
tlement  on  Roanoke  Island.  Raleigh's  first  expedition  was  sent  out  in 
1584,  and  for  many  subsequent  years  he  persevered  fruitlessly  in 
his  purpose  of  establishing  a  colony.  These  repeated  failures 
present  merely  the  common  picture  of  the  ill-planned,  ill-managed,  and 
disastrous  endeavors  of  individuals  in  the  sixteenth  century  to  colo 
nize  the  New  World.  Raleigh  lavished  money  and  thought  upon  his 
schemes ;  but  he  had  undertaken  a  task  beyond  his  strength,  or  that 
of  any  one  man  at  a  time  when  the  art  of  colonization  was  unknown, 
and  its  difficulties  scarcely  imagined.  The  name  Virginia  bestowed 
upon  the  new  colony  in  honor  of  Elizabeth  is  the  only  lasting  memo 
rial  of  Raleigh  in  America.  To  later  times  and  to  a  new  State  has 
been  reserved  the  privilege  of  naming  a  city  for  the  great  adventurer. 
These  repeated  disasters  did  not,  however,  cool  the  zeal  or  diminish 
the  confidence  of  those  Englishmen  who  were  interested  in  discovery 
and  were  the  friends  of  colonization.  Fresh  voyages  kindled  fresh 
hopes.  The  successful  cruise  of  Captain  Gosnold,  his  prosper 
ous  winter  in  New  England,  and  his  discovery  of  a  short  north 
ern  passage,  produced  much  excitement  in  London,  and  greatly  en 
couraged  all  interested  in  such  projects,  while  the  fortunate  voyage 
and  favorable  report  of  Wey mouth  a  few  years  later  seem  to  have 
had  a  decisive  effect.  In  the  following  year,  on  the  petition  of 
certain  "  firm  and  hearty  lovers  "  of  colonization,  James  I.  char 
tered  two  companies  (the  London  and  Plymouth)  and  bestowed  upon 
them  in  equal  portions  the  vast  territory  included  in  twelve  degrees  of 
latitude,  and  stretching  from  Cape  Fear  to  Halifax.  This  charter  and 
the  subsequent  instructions  are  worthy  of  the  intelligence  of  the  first 
Stuart.  They  are  long,  verbose  documents,  are  of  little  historical  val 
ue,  and  have  no  intrinsic  merit  of  any  kind.  By  virtue  of  them  a 
complicated  form  of  government  was  framed.  For  each  colony  sepa 
rate  councils,  appointed  by  the  King,  were  instituted  in  England,  and 
these  councils  were  in  turn  to  name  resident  councillors  for  the  col 
onies.  Thirteen  members  constituted  the  resident  council.  They  had 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  3 

power  to  choose  their  own  president,  to  fill  vacancies  in  their  numbers, 
and,  a  jury  being  required  only  in  capital  cases,  to  act  as  a  court  of 
last  resort  in  all  other  causes.  Religion  was  established  in  accordance 
with  the  forms  and  doctrines  of  the  Church  of  England.  The  advent 
urers,  as  the  members  of  the  Company  were  called,  had  power  to  coin 
money  and  collect  a  revenue  for  twenty-one  years  from  all  vessels 
trading  to  their  ports,  and  they  were  also  freed  from  taxation  for  a  term 
of  years,  One  article  alone,  and  only  in  the  most  general  terms,  pro 
vides  for  the  liberty  of  the  subject,  as  follows:  "  Who  (ever)  shall  dwell 
and  inhabit  within  every  and  any  of  said  several  colonies  and  planta 
tions,  and  every  of  their  children  *  *  *  shall  have  and  enjoy  all  liberties, 
franchises,  and  immunities,  within  any  of  our  other  dominions,  to  all 
intents  and  purposes  as  if  they  had  been  abiding  and  born  within  this 
our  realm  of  England."  The  good  faith  of  this  clause  in  the  charter 
is  somewhat  shaken  by  the  open  disregard  of  all  English  rights  in  the 
instructions ;  but  the  principle  contained  in  this  provision,  though  lit 
tle  noticed  in  1606,  became  of  vital  interest  in  1774.  The  arguments 
of  statesmen  and  parliaments,  of  patriots  and  colonial  assemblies,  turn 
upon  the  existence  of  this  principle  of  citizenship  and  freedom  con 
ceded  by  James  with  the  elaborate  stupidity  by  which,  in  the  same 
paper,  he  evolved  a  system  calculated  to  make  his  colonists  little  more 
than  slaves.  Another  clause  in  the  instructions,  as  important  as  it  was 
wrong  and  injurious,  provided  for  community  of  goods. 

A  more  awkward  scheme  could  hardly  have  been  devised.  An  arbi 
trary  and  irresponsible  council  in  America,  another  almost  equally  so 
in  England,  the  legislative  powers  reserved  to  the  King,  the  governing 
body  a  commercial  monopoly,  and  the  chief  principle  of  society  com 
munity  of  property,  together  formed  one  of  the  most  ingeniously  bad 
systems  for  the  government  of  men  which  could  be  devised.  To  the 
first  settlers  this  frame  of  government  and  a  sealed  box  containing  the 
names  of  the  resident  council  were  confided.  The  men  who  composed 
the  expedition  cared  but  little  for  forms  of  government.  They  were 
imbued  with  the  popular  notions  in  regard  to  the  New  World.  "  I 
tell  thee,"  says  Seagull,  in  Marston's  play  of  "  Eastward  Ho !"  writ 
ten  in  1605,  "golde  is  more  plentifull  there  than  copper  is  with 
us;  and  for  as  much  redde  copper  as  I  can  bring,  I'll  have  thrise 
the  weight  in  golde.  Why,  man,  all  their  dripping-pans  are  pure 
golde,  and  all  the  chaines  with  which  they  chaine  up  their  streets  are 
massive  golde ;  all  the  prisoners  they  take  are  fettered  in  golde ;  and 
for  rubies  and  diamonds,  they  goes  forth  in  holy  dayes  and  gather 


4  BISTORT  OF  THE 

'hem  by  the  sea-shore,  to  hang  on  their  children's  coates  and  stick  in 
their  children's  caps,  as  commonly  as  our  children  wear  saffron -gilt 
brooches  and  groates  with  holes  in  them."  The  life  in  the  new  coun 
try  was  to  be  one  of  ease  and  luxury,  abounding  in  everything  good 
to  eat  and  drink ;  and  last,  though  not  least,  Seagull  says,  "  There  we 
shall  have  no  more  law  than  conscience,  and  not  too  much  of  eyt'her." 
This  was  the  picture  of  the  dramatist,  and  was  unquestionably  in  its 
essence  the  theory  of  the  first  colonists.  The  wild  anticipations  of 
the  gold-hunter,  the  spirit  of  the  conquerors  of  Mexico  and  Peru  filled 
the  breasts  and  inspired  the  hearts  of  the  men  who  embarked  with 
Captain  Newport  late  in  1606,  and  who  were  destined  to  lay  the  foun 
dation  of  a  great  English  state  in  the  New  World. 

Among  the  leaders  of  the  expedition  were  Gosnold,  the  voyager  and 
discoverer,  and  a  prime  mover  in  the  affair ;  Wingfield,  one  of  the 
first- named  patentees,  John  Smith,  Ratcliffe,  Martin,  Kendall,  and 
Percy.  Of  these  men  John  Smith  has  become  famous.  He  has  taken 
a  place  among  the  founders  of  states,  and  a  romantic  interest  has  at 
tached  itself  to  his  name.  For  centuries  his  character  and  deeds  have 
been  applauded,  while  in  late  years  they  have  become  a  theme  for 
censure  and  detraction.  Modern  investigation  has  relentlessly  swept 
away  the  romance,  and  torn  in  pieces  many  of  the  long  accepted  nar 
ratives  in  which  Smith  recorded  his  own  achievements.  Yet  it  was 
not  wholly  by  a  false  and  fluent  pen  that  Smith  obtained  and  held 
his  reputation.  He  was  something  more  than  a  plausible  writer  of 
fiction.  He  was  the  strongest  and  most  representative  man  among 
the  Virginian  colonists.  He  was  an  adventurer  of  a  high  order  in 
an  age  of  adventurers,  and  with  all  the  faults  of  his  time  and  class 
in  full  measure,  he  had  also  their  virtues,  and  it  was  here  that  he 
surpassed  his  companions.  Smith  was  arbitrary,  jealous  of  power, 
quarrelsome,  and  despotic,  ready  to  lie  audaciously  to  serve  his  own 
ends,  and  rashly  over-confident.  But  he  was  also  brave,  energetic, 
quick-witted,  and  full  of  resource.  Bewitched,  no  doubt,  by  the  same 
visions  as  his  companions,  and  far  more  imaginative  than  any  of  them, 
he  alone  of  all  his  little  company  had  the  power  of  recognizing  exist 
ing  facts,  and  dealing  with  them  as  he  found  them.  To  buoyant  hope 
and  sanguine  belief  in  the  unknown,  so  characteristic  of  the  period, 
Smith  united  the  qualities  of  a  leader,  and  some  capacity  for  the 
practical  administration  of  the  colony.  The  other  principal  men  were 
not  of  marked  ability,  and  were,  for  the  most  part,  of  very  indifferent 
character.  Percy  united  to  a  noble  name  honor,  courage,  and  good 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  5 

intentions.  Gosnold  had  been  a  successful  discoverer,  and  appears 
also  to  have  been  an  honest  and  sensible  man.  Wingfield  was,  with 
the  exception  of  Percy,  the  most  important  personage  in  point  of 
wealth  and  social  position,  and  had  served  for  many  years  in  the  Eu 
ropean  wars,  but  he  proved  incapable  of  governing.  The  remaining 
leaders,  and  the  great  mass  of  their  followers  as  well,  were  adventurers 
of  a  low  type.  London  was  swarming  with  such  characters,  who  had 
been  left  idle  by  the  cessation  of  the  Spanish  wars,  and  who  now 
thronged  the  capital  restless  and  dissatisfied,  eager  for  fresh  scenes  in 
new  worlds,  and  thirsting  for  the  old  life  of  freebooting  and  discov 
ery.  Smith  concisely  catalogues  them  as  "poor  gentlemen,  trades 
men,  serving-men,  and  libertines."  They  were  certainly  wretched  ma 
terial  for  the  founders  of  a  state,  especially  as  the  "poor  gentlemen" 
were  to  the  tradesmen  and  mechanics  in  the  ratio  of  five  to  one. 

With  this  hopeful  company  Newport  left  the  Downs  on  the  1st  of 
January,  1607.  The  worthy  Richard  Hakluyt  sent  them  a 
paper  containing  much  good  advice  and  some  ingenious  geo 
graphical  speculations,  and  Drayton  celebrated  their  departure  in  clum 
sy  verses  filled  with  high-flown  compliments.  The  advice  of  the  priest 
and  the  praise  of  the  poet  were  alike  wasted.  By  an  arrangement  in 
geniously  contrived  to  promote  discord,  devised  probably  by  royal 
sagacity,  the  box  containing  the  names  of  the  council  was  not  to  be 
opened  until  the  voyagers  reached  their  destination.  Dissension  broke 
out  almost  immediately.  Whatever  the  merits  of  the  differences,  this 
much  is  certain,  that  Smith  was  the  object  of  the  concentrated  jeal 
ousy  and  hatred  of  his  companions.  He  probably  invented  the  story 
of  the  erection  of  a  pair  of  gallows  for  him  at  the  island  of  Mevis, 
"  which  he  could  not  be  persuaded  to  use ;"  but  there  is  no  doubt  of 
the  fact  that  he  alone  of  those  nominated  was  excluded  from  a  seat 
in  the  council  on  their  arrival  in  Virginia.  His  superior  abilities,  his 
arbitrary  temper,  and  probable  self-assertion,  sufficiently  account  for 
this  attack;  but  he  was  not  long  depressed  by  the  reverse,  and  ob 
tained  his  office  within  a  month  after  the  landing. 

On  the  13th  of  May,  1607,  the  settlers  landed  at  Jamestown,  sent 
out  exploring  parties,  and  began  fortifications.  A  fortnight  later, 
under  the  command  of  Wingfield,  they  repulsed  an  attack  by  the 
Indians;  and  on  the  22d  of  June  Newport  sailed  for  England,  and 
left  them  to  their  own  resources.  The  prospect  must  have  been  a 
dreary  one :  nothing  answered  to  their  expectations.  Instead  of  val 
uable  mines,  the  adventurers  found  only  a  most  fertile  soil ;  instead 


6  HISTORY  OF  THE 

of  timid,  trusting  South  American  Indians,  they  encountered  wild 
tribes  of  hardy,  crafty,  and  hostile  savages ;  instead  of  rich,  defence 
less,  and  barbarian  cities,  an  easy  and  splendid  spoil,  they  found  a  wil 
derness,  and  the  necessity  of  hard  work.  From  the  miserable  char 
acter  of  the  settlers,  dangerous  factions  prevailed  from  the  first,  until 
Smith  obtained  control,  and  maintained  some  sort  of  order — despot 
ically,  perhaps,  but  still  effectually. 

No  one  would  work,  and  famine  and  the  Indians  preyed  upon  them 
mercilessly.  A  small  fort  and  a  few  wretched  huts,  built  after  much 
quarrelling,  represented  for  many  months  all  that  was  accomplished. 
The  only  relief  from  this  dark  picture  of  incompetent  men  perishing, 
without  achievement,  and  by  their  own  folly,  on  the  threshold  of  a 
great  undertaking,  is  to  be  found  in  the  conduct  of  Smith.  Despite 
almost  insurmountable  obstacles,  Smith  kept  the  colony  together  for 
two  years.  He  drilled  the  soldiers,  compelled  labor,  repaired  the  fort, 
traded  with  the  Indians,  outwitted  them  and  kept  their  friendship, 
and  made  long  and  daring  voyages  of  discovery.  He  failed  to  send 
home  a  lump  of  gold,  but  he  did  send  an  excellent  map  of  the  Com 
pany's  territory.  He  did  not  discover  the  passage  to  the  South  Sea, 
but  he  explored  the  great  bays  and  rivers  of  Virginia.  He  did  not 
find  Raleigh's  lost  colonists,  but  he  managed  to  keep  his  own  from 
total  destruction.  The  great  result  of  all  Smith's  efforts  was  the 
character  of  permanency  he  gave  to  the  settlement.  Because  he  suc 
ceeded  in  maintaining  an  English  colony  for  two  consecutive  years  in 
America,  the  London  Company  had  courage  to  proceed ;  and  this  is 
what  constitutes  Smith's  strongest  claim  to  the  admiration  and  grat 
itude  of  posterity.  To  suppose  that  he  had  the  qualities  of  a  foun 
der  of  a  state  is  a  mistake,  although  in  some  measure  he  did  the 
work  of  one.  Neither  Smith's  character  nor  the  nature  of  his  ambi 
tion  fitted  him  for  such  a  task ;  but  he  was  a  quick-witted  and  intel 
ligent  man,  who  understood,  or  soon  discovered,  the  necessary  condi 
tions  of  successful  colonization.  With  a  strong  hand,  therefore,  he 
repressed  the  wretched  malice  and  ignorant  folly  which  had  ruined 
previous  settlements;  and  when  his  opportunities  and  his  companions 
are  considered,  it  is  matter  for  profound  astonishment  that  Smith 
should  have  succeeded  as  he  did.  His  veracity  as  a  historian  in  the 
later  years  of  his  life  has  been  well-nigh  destroyed.  But  little  faith 
can  be  placed  in  the  "Generall  Historic,"  and  modern  investigation  has 
conclusively  relegated  to  the  region  of  legend  and  of  fiction  the  dra 
matic  story  of  Smith's  rescue  by  Pocahontas.  The  shadow  of  doubt 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  7 

rests  upon  all  his  unsupported  statements;  but  nothing  can  obscure 
his  great  services,  to  which  the  world  owes  the  foundation  of  the 
first  English  colony  in  America.  Yet,  after  all  his  struggles,  Smith 
was  severely  blamed  by  the  Company,  apparently  because  Virginia 
was  not  Peru.  In  a  manly  letter  he  sets  forth  the  defects  of  the  col 
ony,  the  need  of  good  men  with  families,  industrious  tradesmen  and 
farmers,  not  "  poor  gentlemen  and  libertines."  Before,  however,  the 
actual  orders  came  to  supersede  him,  Smith  resigned,  or  was  forced 
out  of  the  government,  and  returned  to  England.  The  feeble  life  of 
the  colony  wasted  fast  after  his  departure  and  during  the  sickness  of 
Percy,  who  succeeded  to  the  command.  Matters,  indeed,  came  to 
such  a  pass  that  the  settlement,  even  after  the  coming  of  Gates  and 
Somers  with  part  of  the  fleet,  was  actually  abandoned,  when 
Lord  Delaware  arrived  as  Governor  and  Captain-general  with 
fresh  men  and  supplies. 

Misfortune  had  stimulated  the  London  Company  to  fresh  exer 
tions  ;  their  charter  had  been  extended,  and  powers  reserved  in  the  old 
one  to  the  King  were  now  given  to  the  Company,  which  thus  became 
thoroughly  democratic  in  its  organization.  Prejudice  against  the 
colonists  on  account  of  their  ill-success,  and  rumors  that  the  half- 
starved  wretches  intended  to  parcel  out  Virginia,  then  including  a 
large  part  of  North  America,  among  themselves,  caused  the  Company, 
acting  under  the  new  charter,  to  deprive  the  settlers  of  such  poor 
liberties  as  they  already  possessed.  The  Governor  was  in  future  to 
exercise  uncontrolled  authority,  and  he  was  empowered  to  rule,  if  he 
saw  fit,  by  a  code  of  martial  law  used  in  the  Low  Countries. 

Lord  Delaware,  the  first  Governor  under  the  new  system,  held  office 
but  a  short  time.  He  came  surrounded  by  the  pomp  of  the  Old 
World,  with  a  train  of  liveried  servants,  whose  gorgeous  dresses  must 
have  had  a  strange  effect  in  the  dark  Virginian  forests.  The  osten 
tation  of  his  administration,  which  was,  on  the  whole,  a  beneficial  one, 
and  the  splendor  of  his  train,  show  the  profound  ignorance  of  the 
time  in  regard  to  the  necessities  and  conditions  of  colonization.  Lord 
Delaware  was  soon  succeeded  in  office  by  Sir  Thomas  Dale,  to  whom 
Virginia  is  more  indebted  than  to  any  of  her  early  governors.  Dale 
administered  his  government  in  accordance  with  the  martial  code  pre 
pared  for  use  at  the  Governor's  discretion.  By  these  severe  and  sal 
utary  laws  he  curbed  the  refractory  temper  of  his  worthless  subjects, 
and  was  for  five  years  the  ruling  spirit  of  the  colony,  although  Gates 
was  for  a  time  at  the  head  of  affairs.  During  this  period  the  Com- 


8  BISTORT  OF  THE 

pany  improved  and  increased  the  emigration,  but  the  advance  was 
chiefly  due  to  their  Governor  in  Virginia.  Taking  advantage  of  the 
marriage  of  Pocahontas,  Dale  continued  and  strengthened  his  success 
ful  Indian  treaties,  while  at  the  same  time  he  extended  the  settlements 
and  kept  them  in  order.  But  that  which  did  most  credit  to  his  wis 
dom  and  good  sense  was  his  initiation  of  a  reform  in  the  manner  of 
holding  property.  He  provided  for  the  introduction  of  individual 
proprietorship,  and  by  thus  breaking  down  the  wretched  communal 
system  imposed  upon  the  colonists,  he  laid  the  foundations  of  future 
strength  and  prosperity.  Dale  found  the  colony  struggling  for  a 
doubtful  existence,  and  left  it  firmly  established.  The  first  period 
in  Virginian  history  was  terminated  by  this  strong  and  wise  adminis 
tration. 

George  Yeardley,  the  deputy,  carried  on  the  government  after  Sir 
1616-  Thomas  Dale's  departure,  but  was  soon  superseded  by  Samuel 
1617.  Argall,  who  obtained  the  office  of  governor  through  the  influ 
ence  of  the  Court  faction  in  the  Company.  Argall  was  a  sea-captain 
of  piratical  tastes,  who  had  been  conspicuous  during  Dale's  adminis 
tration  for  the  abduction  of  Pocahontas,  for  pillaging  and  burning  the 
huts  of  the  French  fishermen  in  Acadia,  and,  as  has  been  alleged,  for 
bullying  the  Dutch  traders  on  Manhattan.  As  might  have  been  ex 
pected  from  his  career,  Argall  was  an  active,  energetic,  unscrupulous 
man,  who,  placed  at  the  head  of  a  government  administered  in  accord 
ance  with  a  military  code,  carried  it  on  in  the  spirit  of  a  buccaneer, 
and  was  tyrannical  and  extortionate.  He  stimulated  the  energy 
which  had  flagged  somewhat  under  the  mild  rule  of  Yeardley  ;  but  he 
did  what  under  the  circumstances  was  still  better,  he  oppressed  the 
colonists  and  robbed  them  of  their  property,  his  especial  vengeance 
and  greed  lighting  on  the  friends  of  Lord  Delaware.  Complaints 
soon  found  their  way  to  England.  The  Virginians  had  now  awakened 
to  the  fact  that  they  were  shockingly  misgoverned  ;  that  they  were 
left  at  the  mercy  of  one  man's  will ;  that  their  rights  were  unknown, 
and  that  they  had  no  protection  against  the  tyranny  of  such  rufflers 
as  Argall.  The  period  of  political  development  had  begun. 

Argall  carried  his  oppression  too  far.  Reports  of  his  misrule  cir 
culating  in  England  almost  stopped  emigration  at  a  very  critical  pe 
riod  in  the  life  of  the  colony.  Moreover,  Argall  had  chosen  his  time 
badly.  The  patriot  party,  who  were  beginning  to  make  the  London 
Company  for  Virginia  a  school  for  education  in  free  government, 
found  that  the  governorship  of  their  colony  had  been  stolen,  and  the 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  9 

enterprise  almost  ruined  by  the  Court  minority.  The  grievances  of 
the  Virginians  obtained,  therefore,  a  ready  hearing  from  men  upon 
whom  the  hand  of  majesty  had  already  begun  to  press. 

The  fortunes  of  the  little  American  settlement  were  caught  and 
swept  along  in  the  political  current  then  just  beginning  to  run 
strongly  in  England.  The  indignation  aroused  in  London  by 
ArgalPs  misconduct  led  to  the  instant  defeat  of  the  Court  party.  Sir 
Edwin  Sandys  replaced  Sir  Thomas  Smith  as  treasurer,  and  was  in  turn 
succeeded  by  another  liberal,  the  Earl  of  Southampton.  A  mercantile 
company  is  at  best  a  wretched  sovereign ;  but  Virginia  was  fortunate 
in  falling  into  the  hands  of  men  who  at  that  moment  cared  more  for 
liberal  principles  than  for  anything  else.  The  opposition  was  all-pow 
erful  in  the  Company,  and  they  made  it  a  battle-ground  with  the  King. 
They  were  at  last  defeated ;  but  in  the  mean  time  they  conferred  on 
Virginia  a  representative  government,  and  taught  the  colonists  the 
lesson  of  successful  resistance.  Thus  the  great  political  forces  at 
work  in  England  gave  Virginia  free  institutions  through  the  strange 
medium  of  a  commercial  monopoly.  Sandys,  Southampton,  Digges, 
Selden,  and  the  rest,  using  the  London  Company  as  a  political  engine, 
not  only  governed  Virginia  wisely,  but,  to  farther  other  ends,  gave  her 
political  opportunities  from  which  she  reaped  lasting  benefit. 

Not  content  with  the  recall  of  Argall,  and  with  despatching  first 
Lord  Delaware,  who  died  on  the  voyage,  and  then  Yeardley  in  his 
stead,  the  Company  granted  a  new  form  of  political  organization  to 
the  colonists.  The  Governor's  power  was  in  future  to  be  limited  by 
a  council,  and  the  assemblage  of  a  representative  body  was  author 
ized.  Yeardley  and  the  colonists  immediately  concurred  in  this 
measure,  and  the  House  of  Burgesses  met  in  June,  1619. 
Almost  their  first  act  was  to  exclude  the  burgesses  from 
Martin's  hundred,  because,  by  the  terms  of  their  patent,  they  were 
exempted  from  obedience  to  the  laws  of  the  colony.  The  burgesses 
prayed  the  Company  that  the  clause  in  the  charter  guaranteeing  equal 
laws  might  not  be  violated,  and  the  maintenance  of  the  great  Eng 
lish  principle  of  the  equality  of  all  men  before  the  law  dignifies  the 
first  meeting  of  the  first  representative  body  of  America.  The  session 
was  mainly  occupied  with  the  passage  of  sumptuary  laws  and  police 
regulations.  Appropriate  statutes  provided  for  the  government  of 
the  clergy,  and  a  tax  on  tobacco  was  laid  for  their  support.  The  leg 
islation  of  these  men  was  as  unimportant  as  it  could  well  be  in  its 
general  character,  yet  it  contained  the  germ  of  that  jealous  resistance 


10  HISTORY  OF  THE 

to  the  mother  country  and  all  things  proceeding  thence  which  indel« 
ibly  marks  American  colonial  history.  Dale's  firm  government  had 
imparted  stability  to  the  infant  State,  while  Argall's  galling  tyranny 
had  stimulated  the  latent  political  life.  Political  habits,  although 
laid  aside  with  difficulty,  are  easily  resumed  by  all  the  English  race. 
Even  in  this  feeble  Virginian  settlement,  among  this  handful  of  men 
scattered  along  the  outskirts  of  the  wilderness,  the  same  spirit  existed 
which  was  at  that  very  moment  making  itself  felt  in  England.  Ma 
terial  prosperity  had  begun,  and  political  development  was  close  be 
hind.  With  Dale's  administration  closes  the  first  period  in  Virginian 
history.  A  year  of  bad  government  ensues,  and  with  the  meeting  of 
the  Burgesses  the  second  stage  is  reached.  The  parasitic  existence  is 
at  an  end,  and  the  colony  begins  to  have  interests  and  a  life  of  its 
own.  This  year,  so  marked  in  Virginian  annals  by  the  dawn  of  rep 
resentative  government  and  constitutional  freedom,  is  made  still  fur 
ther  memorable  by  the  arrival  of  the  first  slaves  in  America.  The 
landing  of  this  ill-omened  freight  was  probably  due  to  the  open 
ing  of  the  Virginian  ports  to  free-trade  by  the  London  Company,  al 
though  they  may  have  been  a  legacy  of  Argall's  piratical  rule.  The 
year  was  also  marked  by  much  immigration  of  very  varied  excellence. 
A  large  proportion  of  the  immigration  at  this  time  consisted  of  boys 
and  girls  seized  by  press-gangs  in  the  streets  of  London,  and  shipped 
as  if  they  were  felons  condemned  to  transportation ;  yet  through 
every  difficulty  growth  and  progress  could  be  perceived. 

When  Virginia  held  her  first  Assembly,  twenty-two  Burgesses,  rep 
resenting  eleven  boroughs,  composed  that  body.  A  few  hundred 
sturdy,  liberty  -  loving  Englishmen,  bearing  up  against  unexampled 
hardships,  living  the  rudest  and  most  exposed  lives,  and  striving  for 
sudden  fortune  by  tobacco-growing,  constituted  the  great  State  of  Vir 
ginia  in  1619.  But  the  prospects  of  future  success  opened  by  the 
wealth  which  tobacco  seemed  to  insure  served  to  rapidly  build  up  the 
colony.  Immigration  increased  and  improved.  The  "prudent  men 
with  families"  whom  Smith  had  sighed  for  began  to  come.  The  rapid 
growth  of  the  colony  in  numbers,  wealth,  and  commercial  importance 
is  shown  by  the  increase  of  the  population  from  six  hundred  to  four 
thousand  within  a  year  after  the  first  Assembly,  and  by  orders  in 
council  prohibiting  free-trade.  So  firmly  was  the  colony  established 
during  Yeardley's  administration,  that  the  Indian  outbreak,  in  which 
more  than  three  hundred  persons  perished,  did  not  destroy  the  settle 
ments.  This  attack  occurred  in  the  second  year  of  the  administration 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  \\ 

of  Sir  Francis  Wyatt,  who,  when  he  came  to  Virginia  as  Yeardley's 
successor,  brought  a  new  constitution  granted  by  the  Com 
pany  to  their  colonists.  Not  only  were  the  former  immuni 
ties  and  franchises  confirmed,  but  definite  provision  was  made  for  the 
regular  assemblage  of  the  representative  body.  This  further  aston 
ishing  act  of  generosity  and  wisdom  on  the  part  of  a  commercial 
monopoly  was  due  to  no  efforts  of  the  colonists.  They  had  gone  so 
far  as  to  complain  of  Argall,  and  to  humbly  petition  against  unjust 
and  unequal  patents,  but  they  had  not  yet  thought  of  demanding 
formal  securities  for  their  rights.  The  permission  to  hold  an  assem 
bly  was  everything  to  men  who  had  only  dared  to  hope  for  the  recall 
of  an  obnoxious  governor;  but  to  have  a  regular  frame  of  constitu 
tional  government  conferred  upon  them  by  the  voluntary  action  of 
the  Company  was  something  they  had  never  even  dreamed  of,  and 
their  good  fortune  was  due  to  far  more  powerful  agencies  than  their 
own  discontents. 

The  rising  opposition  to  James  and  to  prerogative,  in  favor  of  lib 
erty,  indicated  the  growth  of  the  great  movement  which  brought  the 
next  Stuart  to  the  block,  and  the  London  Company  for  Virginia  has 
obtained  lasting  fame  as  the  first  ground  occupied  by  the  patriot 
party  in  England.  Under  the  democratic  constitution  of  the  advent 
urers,  freedom  of  debate  and  love  of  independence  were  fostered. 
James,  ever  jealous  of  any  invasion,  real  or  fancied,  of  his  prerogative, 
attempted  interference  at  an  early  day ;  but  the  intrepid  Company  op 
posed  him,  and  set  at  naught  his  claim  to  nominate  their  officers. 
James  denounced  the  Company  as  "  a  seminary  for  a  seditious  Par 
liament,"  and  said  he  would  rather  they  should  choose  the  devil  as 
treasurer  than  Sir  Edwin  Sandys.  So  high  did  the  contest  run  that 
Chamberlain,  writing  to  Sir  Dudley  Carleton,  says:  "The  factions  in 
these  two  companies  are  grown  so  violent,  as  Guelfs  and  Ghibellines 
were  not  more  animated  one  against  another;  and  they  seldom 
meet  upon  the  Exchange  or  in  the  streets,  but  they  brabble  and  quar 
rel." 

From  this  struggle  and  the  feelings  it  excited,  the  colonists  ob 
tained  solid  advantages,  but  the  doom  of  the  Company  was  sealed. 
James  pursued  them  unrelentingly,  the  "  great  massacre  "  coming  at 
a  moment  to  fan  discontent  and  encourage  his  schemes.  Royal  com 
missioners  were  thereupon  sent  to  Virginia  to  gather  materials  for 
the  destruction  of  the  Company.  The  Virginians,  however,  stood  by 
their  friends.  The  commissioners,  without  producing  their  creden- 


12  HISTORY  OF  THE 

tials,  demanded  the  records  of  the  Assembly.  The  Assembly  de 
clined  to  comply.  The  commissioners  bribed  the  clerk  of  the  House 
to  give  up  the  records,  and  the  Assembly  stood  their  clerk  in  the 
pillory  and  cut  off  his  ear.  But  all  this  patriotic  resistance  was 
fruitless  on  the  part  of  colonists  and  adventurers  alike ;  the  former 
learned  their  first  lesson  in  resisting  the  royal  power,  and  the  Com 
pany  lost  its  charter.  A  quo  warranto  was  tried  in  the  King's  Bench, 
and  the  charters  annulled.  The  "London"  Company  and  the  in 
trigues  which  gave  it  importance  and  led  to  its  dissolution  concern 
us  only  in  their  immediate  connection  with  Virginia.  In  obedience 
to  their  own  sentiments,  and  in  conformity  with  their  most  cherished 
principles,  the  London  adventurers  endowed  Virginia  with  free  insti 
tutions,  but  their  overthrow  was  none  the  less  a  distinct  benefit  to 
the  colony.  It  not  only  relieved  the  settlers  from  the  cumbrous, 
complicated,  and  uncertain  government  of  a  mercantile  corporation, 
but  it  placed  them  in  the  same  direct  relation  with  their  King  as  his 
other  subjects. 

Sir  Francis  Wyatt  was  continued  in  his  office  after  the  dissolution 
1624-  °f  the  charter,  and  again  when  Charles  I.  came  to  the  throne. 
1625.  Soon  after  the  latter  event  he  resigned  the  government  to 
Yeardley,  and  sailed  for  England.  The  five  years  of  Wyatt's  admin 
istration  are  memorable  for  their  legislative  activity,  for  the  formation 
of  political  habits,  and  for  the  first  opposition  to  the  home  government 
which  strengthened  and  confirmed  the  independent  spirit  of  the  colo 
nists.  The  session  of  1623-'24,  the  year  the  royal  commissioners  came 
to  Virginia  for  assistance  in  ruining  the  Company,  is  marked  in  the 
Statute-book  by  the  definition  and  declaration  of  certain  guiding 
political  principles  which  were  never  after  shaken.  The  most  impor 
tant  were  the  limitations  on  the  Governor's  power ;  he  was  not  "  to 
lay  any  taxes  or  impositions  upon  the  colony,  their  lands,  or  other 
way  than  by  the  authority  of  the  General  Assembly,  to  be  levied  and 
employed  as  said  Assembly  shall  appoint."  The  Governor  was  not 
to  withdraw  the  inhabitants  from  their  labors  for  his  own  service, 
and  Burgesses  attending  the  Assembly  were  to  be  privileged  from 
arrest.  These  were  the  same  great  and  fundamental  principles  for 
which  patriotic  men  were  then  contending  in  England.  Virginia 
learned  and  applied  the  best  theories  of  English  constitutional  gov 
ernment  with  wonderful  aptitude. 

In  this  same  session,  besides  a  number  of  private  acts  and  police 
regulations,  monthly  courts,  to  be  held  by  commissioners  appointed  by 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  13 

the  Governor,  the  commander  of  the  place  being  ex  officio  of  the  quo 
rum,  were  established  in  some  of  the  more  distant  boroughs.  One  law 
passed  at  this  time  curiously  illustrates  how  thoroughly  English  the 
Virginians  were  in  the  recognition  of  social  position,  and  how  the 
whole  state  of  society  was  destined  to  be  a  reproduction  on  a  small 
scale  and  in  a  new  country  of  that  which  the  colonists  had  left.  It 
was  enacted,  "  that  such  persons  of  quality  as  shall  be  found  delinquent 
in  their  duties,  being  not  fitt  to  undergoe  corporal  punishment,  may 
notwithstanding  be  ymprisoned  at  the  discretion  of  the  commander." 
This  delicacy  in  dealing  with  well-born  malefactors  shows  that,  though 
these  early  settlers  had  a  hearty  love  of  political  liberty  and  the  en 
forcement  of  law,  they  were  by  no  means  the  sturdy  young  republi 
cans  they  are  sometimes  represented.  They  were  true  Englishmen, 
wedded  to  the  traditions,  prejudices,  and  social  habits  of  their  native 
land. 

When  Charles  succeeded  his  father  he  continued  Wyatt,  and  made 
no  mention  of  the  liberties  and  franchises  enjoyed  by  the  settlers;  for  it 
probably  did  not  occur  to  him  that  such  persons  needed  representative 
government.  That  he  discountenanced  the  former  "  popular  course," 
is  probable  from  the  break  in  the  meetings  of  the  Assembly  which 
seems  to  have  occurred  at  this  time.  But  although  Virginia  was  a 
feeble  colony,  she  produced  a  valuable  staple.  Charles  wanted  money, 
was  determined  to  engross  the  profits  on  tobacco,  and  really  cared 
very  little  how  the  men  who  raised  the  tobacco  were  governed.  His 
sore  need  of  money  led  him  into  a  recognition  of  the  Assembly.  With 
that  body  he  carried  on  his  dealings,  and  King  and  burgesses  haggled 
over  their  bargains  with  right  good-will.  The  burgesses  declined  to 
accede  to  the  proposed  royal  monopoly,  although  they  offered  Charles 
good  terms.  Meantime  Wyatt  departed  for  Ireland,  and  on  the  death 
of  his  successor  the  Council  chose  Francis  West  as  governor,  and 
subsequently  John  Pott.  The  latter  was  soon  superseded  by  a  royal 
governor,  Sir  John  Harvey,  a  commissioner  of  the  King  at  the 
time  of  the  dissolution  of  the  Company,  and  between  whom 
and  the  Virginians  there  was  but  little  good-will.  He  quickly  filled 
up  the  measure  of  unpopularity  by  assuming  the  power  of  granting 
unpatented  lands,  and  the  turbulent  quarrels  which  ensued  between 
governor  and  people  show  merely  the  former's  despotic  spirit  and  de 
sire  of  encroaching  upon  the  powers  of  the  Assembly,  and  the  rather 
ill-regulated  love  of  liberty  which  then  characterized  the  Virginians. 
These  quarrels  proved  in  the  end  to  have  been  well  timed.  From  com- 


14  HISTORY  OF  THE 

plaints,  the  colonists  soon  proceeded  to  more  active  measures,  and 
"  thrust  Harvey  out  of  the  government."  He  went  to  Eng- 
1636  ^nd,  and  laid  his  complaints  before  the  King.  Charles  was  in 
no  mood  to  tolerate  opposition,  and  reinstated  the  obnoxious 
Governor,  who  continued  in  office  three  years  longer,  followed  by  the 
bitter  hatred  of  the  colonists.  But  Charles  was  getting  deeper  and 
deeper  into  difficulties,  which  rendered  harsh  treatment  of  his  colonies 
most  unprofitable  and  inexpedient.  He  gradually  relaxed  bis  poli 
cy,  and  in  1639  reappointed  Sir  Francis  Wyatt  to  the  government  of 
Virginia. 

There  were  during  the  period  of  Harvey's  administration  two  events 
of  great  importance.  One  was  the  first  intercourse  with  another  col 
ony,  that  which  settled  Maryland  in  1632  under  the  auspices  of  Lord 
Baltimore ;  the  other  was  the  rise  of  the  Puritan  party  in  Virginia. 
The  former  was  the  main  cause  of  Harvey's  trouble.  Harvey  was 
well  disposed  toward  the  new-comers,  and  treated  them  with  fair 
ness  and  consideration,  while  the  Virginians  swallowed  their  indig 
nation  at  what  they  deemed  a  dismemberment  of  their  territory,  and 
received  Calvert's  colonists  kindly  enough.  But  this  good-nature  was 
of  short  duration.  Quarrels  about  jurisdiction  broke  out  almost  im 
mediately,  and  Harvey  and  the  Marylanders  alike  suffered.  Clay- 
borne's  petty  wars  with  the  Calverts  excited  the  sympathy  of  Vir 
ginia,  but,  so  far  as  she  was  concerned,  repay  no  one's  study.  They 
served  in  a  harsh  way  to  accustom  the  Virginians  to  neighbors,  and 
taught  them  their  first  lesson  of  forbearance  for  the  sake  of  mutual 
advantage.  The  rise  of  the  Puritans  had  a  much  more  immediate  and 
marked  effect  upon  the  fortunes  of  Virginia.  The  appearance  of  Pu 
ritans  and  Puritan  principles  was  due  to  a  small  immigration  of  that 
class  many  years  before,  and  to  the  increasing  distrust  of  royalty  bred 
by  the  condition  of  the  times.  Virginia  had  been  settled  before  the 
beginning  of  the  struggle  which  afterward  rent  England  asunder,  and, 
more  strongly  attached  to  the  Established  Church  than  to  any  other 
form  of  worship,  the  Virginians  had  always  made  it  their  first  nominal 
duty  to  guard  and  support  the  religion  of  the  state.  They  had  never 
felt  themselves  injured  by  the  Stuarts.  Both  James  and  Charles  had, 
in  the  main,  treated  them  well,  and  the  difficulties  with  the  latter  had 
been  only  the  natural  disagreements  of  buyer  and  seller.  Ultimate 
victory  had  crowned  their  resistance  to  Harvey ;  and  no  principle  had 
been  involved  in  any  of  these  contests.  Such  a  community  was  not 
a  very  promising  soil  for  the  Puritans ;  yet  so  great  was  the  strength 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  15 

of  their  doctrines,  their  party  had  struck  its  roots  so  deep  down  into 
every  part  of  English  society,  that  they  throve  even  in  Virginia,  al 
though  as  yet  the  lines  were  not  sharply  drawn. 

After  a  short  term  of  little  more  than  two  years  Wyatt  was  replaced 
by  Sir  William  Berkeley,  who  came  furnished  with  abundance 
of  mild  words  and  fair  promises  from  Charles,  then  hard  pushed 
by  his  enemies.  The  new  Governor  was,  of  course,  at  the  head  of  the 
Royalist  interest,  governed  well  at  first,  and  was  generally  popular.  The 
arrival  of  New  England  missionaries  first  aroused  the  dominant  party, 
and  an  act  was  passed  that  "all  Non-conformists  shall  be  compelled  to 
depart  the  collony  with  all  conveniencie."  The  general  tone  of  this 
Assembly  shows  that  the  religious  feeling  was  wholly  in  ac- 
1643~  cor(^ance  w^h  the  moderate  party  of  the  Established  Church 
in  England.  There  was  this  act  against  the  Puritans ;  but,  in 
remembrance  of  Maryland,  a  much  sterner  law  against  Papists.  The 
burgesses  granted  two  houses  to  Berkeley,  and  made  good  his  salary  ; 
but  they  stated  distinctly  in  the  act  that  it  was  not  to  be  drawn  into 
a  precedent.  In  their  revised  laws  they  re-enacted  that  the  Governor 
was  not  to  lay  taxes  without  leave  of  the  Assembly,  and  that  burgesses 
should  be  privileged ;  they  further  provided  that  nothing  was  to  con 
travene  the  act  of  the  Assembly,  that  every  one  demanding  a  jury  had 
a  right  to  one,  and  that  appeals  could  be  brought  from  county  courts 
to  the  quarter  courts,  and  thence  to  the  Assembly.  The  general  char 
acter  of  the  legislation  was  hostile  to  the  prerogative,  and,  except  for 
the  law  against  Non-conformists,  was  far  more  Puritan  than  Royalist. 
The  first  step  toward  federation  was  taken  in  the  passage  of  an  act 
ratifying  and  regulating  commerce  with  Maryland. 

At  a  great  distance  from  England,  the  colonists  were  exempt  from 
civil  war,  and  their  prosperity  increased  rapidly,  interrupted  only  by 
a  second  Indian  outbreak,  which  Berkeley  quelled  with  vigor 
and  success.     Yet  Virginia  was  so  exact  a  copy  in  little  of 
the  mother  country,  that  during  this  period  of  quiet  and  prosperity 
the  Puritan  party  grew  so  steadily  that  the  restless  Clayborne  found  it 
worth  his  while  to  appear  as  one  of  its  leaders.    The  execution  of  the 
King  naturally  produced  a  violent  revulsion,  while  the  strong  meas 
ures  of  Parliament  had  already  aided  Berkeley's  party,  which  had  been 
enabled  to  vote  the  Governor  a  guard,  and  to  empower  him  to 
impress  troops.     The  sorrow  and  indignation  of  the  naturally 
loyal  Virginians  at  the  "  murder  "  of  the  King  put  the  Cavalier  party 
in  fact  so  completely  in  the  ascendant  that  laws  were  passed  of  the 


16  HISTORY  OF  THE 

very  strongest  nature  in  regard  to  those  who  dared  to  defend  the 
manner  of  Charles's  death,  or  to  asperse  his  memory.  The  number 
of  Independents  in  Virginia  was  trifling ;  and  the  majority  of  the  col 
onists,  not"  possessing  the  religious  stimulus,  shrank  in  undisguised 
horror  from  what  they  considered  the  awful  crime  of  Cromwell  and 
his  soldiers.  Virginia,  therefore,  went  on  quietly  as  before  with  a 
Royalist  government.  The  last  act  of  Charles  had  been  a  kind  one 
in  declining  to  restore  the  Company — which  he  did  not  then  have 
the  power  to  do — and  the  well-known  sympathy  of  Virginia  with 
the  unhappy  King  drew  many  exiled  Cavaliers  to  America,  and  thus 
increased  the  Royalist  strength  in  the  colonial  parties. 

Berkeley's  invitation  to  Charles  II.  to  come  to  Virginia  was  cer 
tainly  made  in  good  faith,  and  there  is  every  reason  to  suppose  that 
the  sentiment  of  the  colony  supported  the  offer  of  the  Governor; 
but  the  founders  of  the  English  Commonwealth  were  not  the  men  to 
suffer  disobedience,  even  in  the  most  remote  corner  of  their  posses 
sions.  Commissioners  for  the  colonies  were  appointed — among  oth 
ers  Clayborne — and  the  fleet  in  which  they  sailed  arrived  at 
Jamestown  in  1652.  The  Assembly  and  the  commissioners 
very  soon  came  to  an  agreement.  Either  the  ultra-loyalism  produced 
by  Charles's  execution  had  subsided,  and  the  Puritan  party  had  re 
gained  enough  ground  to  enable  it  to  act  offensively  upon  the  slight 
est  external  encouragement,  or  the  loyal  valor  of  the  mass  of  the  col 
onists  evaporated  at  the  sight  of  a  fleet  manned  by  the  seamen  of 
Blake  and  Ayscue.  The  substantial  victory,  at  all  events,  rested  with 
the  Puritan  party,  and  it  is  difficult  to  avoid  the  conclusion  that 
Berkeley  found  himself,  after  all  his  brave  talk,  insufficiently  sup 
ported.  Colonies  are  proverbially  selfish,  and,  despite  their  warlike 
preparations,  the  Virginians  appear  to  have  shown  no  overwhelming 
desire  for  bloodshed.  The  mildness  of  the  terms  granted  accord  well 
with  the  circumstances  of  the  times.  The  Parliament  was  in  no 
mood  to  make  fresh  enemies,  especially  where  distance  rendered  them 
formidable ;  and  the  Puritan  party  in  the  colony,  upon  whom  the 
home  government  had  to  rely,  probably  set  the  safety  and  prosperity 
of  Virginia  far  above  all  other  considerations.  The  ascendancy  of 
the  Puritan  element,  however,  was  secured  in  Virginia,  and  their 
leaders  administered  the  affairs  of  the  colony  until  the  Restoration. 
Nothing  could  have  been  more  free  and  independent  than  the  govern 
ment  established  and  maintained  under  the  auspices  of  Cromwell. 
The  Protector  did  not  appoint  one  of  the  three  Puritan  governors — 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  17 

Bennet,  Digges,  and  Matthews;  they  were  all  chosen  by  the  Assem 
bly,  and  derived  their  power  entirely  from  the  representatives  of  the 
people.  The  same  was  true  of  the  Council,  and  at  no  period  did  Vir 
ginia  enjoy  so  large  a  measure  of  self-government  as  under  the  Pro 
tectorate.  The  Parliamentary  commissioners,  headed  by  the  active 
Clayborne,  occupied  themselves  chiefly  with  the  affairs  of  Maryland, 
and  with  settling  boundaries;  while  the  Assembly  defined  the  powers 
of  the  Governor  and  Council,  and  asserted  the  popular  rights  in  their 
fullest  extent.  Indeed,  in  their  difficulty  with  Matthews,  they  re 
moved  and  re-elected  him,  and  succeeded  perfectly  in  all  their  claims 
to  the  supreme  power  in  the  state.  They  followed  the  principles 
and  example  of  the  great  Parliament  in  England,  but  acted  with 
more  moderation  and  fairness,  and  they  fortunately  met  no  provincial 
Cromwell  ready  and  able  to  tear  power  from  their  grasp.  That  Vir 
ginia  prospered  during  the  period  of  the  Protectorate  is  not  surpris 
ing;  for,  under  the  guidance  of  the  Puritan  party,  the  liberties  of  the 
people  were  quietly,  legally,  and  successfully  affirmed  and  established, 
while  their  interests  were  prudently  protected. 

But  Puritanism  left  a  more  enduring  mark  upon  the  English 
colonial  policy  than  a  passing  alteration  of  particular  governments. 
When  Berkeley  was  first  sent  to  Virginia,  he  brought  with  him  royal 
instructions  regulating  trade,  and  requiring  that  all  Virginian  prod 
ucts  should  be  shipped  to  English  ports  alone.  This  was  the  dawn 
of  the  famous  restrictive  policy ;  but  it  was  reserved  to  Cromwell  to 
put  this  policy  into  an  enduring  shape  by  means  of  the  Navigation 
Act  passed  as  a  war  measure  by  the  Long  Parliament,  the  first  of  the 
famous  series  which  led  ultimately  to  the  revolt  of  the  colonies.  This 
act  was  not  observed  in  Virginia,  despite  the  equivalents  granted  by 
Parliament  in  the  treaty,  and  no  attempt  was  then  made  to  enforce  it. 

The  government  of  the  colony  during  the  term  of  the  Puritan  as 
cendancy  was  not  only  wise  but  strong.  Clayborne  and  Bennet,  at 
the  head  of  a  victorious  party,  were  not  the  men  to  forget  their  for 
mer  difficulties  and  defeats  in  Maryland ;  and  backed  by  the  Virginian 
strength,  and  in  the  name  of  the  Commonwealth,  they  subdued  and 
governed  their  Catholic  neighbor.  The  theory  of  repressed  loyalty 
in  Virginia  can  be  safely  abandoned.  Satisfied  with  the  triumph 
of  his  party  and  its  leaders,  Cromwell  left  the  colony  to  take  care  of 
itself.  On  the  other  hand,  his  party,  strong  in  the  Protector's  sup 
port,  governed  wisely  and  well,  oppres'sing  no  one,  and  making  the 
colony  prosperous  at  home  and  respected  abroad.  The  death  of  Oli- 

2 


18  HISTORY  OF  THE 

ver  and  the  accession  of  Richard  were  received  in  Virginia,  as  in  Eng 
land,  without  an  outbreak  of  any  kind,  and  Richard  was  universally 
acknowledged.  When  Samuel  Matthews  died,  shortly  after,  Virginia 
was  left  without  a  Governor,  and  the  abdication  of  Richard  left  Eng 
land  without  a  recognized  Government.  The  Virginian  Assembly, 
with  all  the  power  of  the  state  in  its  hands,  determined  to  await  the 
arrival  of  commissioners,  and  in  the  mean  time  re-elected 
Berkeley.  This  fatal  reversion  to  the  head  of  the  old  party 
is  not  easy  to  understand.  It  indicates  an  absence  of  party-spirit, 
and  apparently  a  lack  of  leading  men  on  the  Puritan  side,  and  was 
certainly  a  mistake  which  led  to  many  troubles  subsequently.  Dur 
ing  the  Protectorate  Virginia  enjoyed  peace,  prosperity,  and  good 
government,  and  at  the  time  of  the  Restoration  possessed  free-trade, 
universal  suffrage,  and  religious  freedom.  There  was  no  reason  for 
her  craving  a  return  to  the  old  government.  The  mildness  of  par 
ties,  however,  permitted  the  feeble  Royalist  reaction  to  go  on  un 
checked.  The  general  sentiment  of  Virginia  was  undoubtedly  Royal 
ist,  but  not  extreme ;  and,  in  obedience  to  what  was  at  best  a  sen 
timent,  the  people  suffered  the  King's  party  to  recover  without  a 
struggle  their  power  in  the  colony.  Some  of  the  old  leaders  of  the 
Puritan  party  were  dead,  and  the  survivors  were  neither  active  nor 
decided.  They  and  their  followers  yielded  at  a  moment  when  self- 
assertion  would  have  been  all-sufficient,  and  afterward  resisted  in  a 
way  and  at  a  time  when  utter  overthrow  was  alone  possible  for  them. 
Hope  made  the  Royalists  active,  while  the  Puritans  were  inert;  and 
the  former,  aided  no  doubt  by  the  general  human  desire  of  being  on 
the  winning  side,  carried  with  them  the  unresisting  mass  of  the  peo 
ple.  This  want  of  foresight  and  firmness  at  a  critical  moment  after 
ward  cost  the  Virginians  dear.  An  opportunity  for  the  establishment 
of  liberal  and  independent  government  was  lost,  which  no  amount  of 
subsequent  turbulence  and  rebellion  could  retrieve.  During  the  pe 
riod  of  the  Commonwealth  another  great  political  question  had  shown 
itself  for  the  first  time.  Treaties  had  been  begun  with  New  England 
and  New  York,  and  the  bonds  connecting  Virginia  and  Maryland  had 
been  drawn  closer.  This  more  general  intercourse  is  the  first  faint 
indication  of  the  confederating  spirit,  and  was  largely  due  to  the  rule 
of  Cromwell,  under  which  most  of  the  colonies  enjoyed  the  greatest 
measure  of  freedom  they  ever  obtained  while  in  a  state  of  subjection 
to  the  parent  country. 

Berkeley,  on  his  second  accession,  was  at  first  disposed  to  obey  the 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  19 

Assembly,  and  govern  after  the  manner  of  his  Puritan  predecessors ; 
but  the  news  of  the  Restoration  put  the  public  mind  into  the  same 
transport  of  Royalist  zeal  and  repentance  which  was  manifested  in 
England.  This  new  popular  feeling  at  once  threw  all  the  power  into 
the  hands  of  the  old  Royalist  faction,  who  were  weak  enough  and  fool 
ish  enough  to  at  once  push  their  advantages  to  dangerous  extremes. 
The  Commonwealth  men  disappeared  from  the  new  Assembly, 
and  Royalists  took  their  place.  An  address  was  voted  to  the 
King,  and  a  munificent  outfit  was  granted  to  Berkeley,  who  went  to 
England  to  protest  against  the  enforcement  of  the  Navigation  Act. 
Berkeley,  on  his  return,  brought  back  advantageous  patents  for  him 
self,  but  nothing  for  the  colony ;  and  Clayborne,  the  last  of  the  Puritan 
leaders,  was  displaced  from  his  office  of  Secretary.  The  power  of 
taxation  was  put  into  the  hands  of  the  Governor  and  Council  for  three 
years.  The  Church  of  England  was  re-established,  and  severe  laws 
were  passed  against  Dissenters.  Worst  of  all,  the  royal  government  at 
home  proceeded  to  enforce  the  Navigation  Act ;  and  as  a  consequence 
of  this  last  step,  tobacco  fell  to  a  low  price,  and  imports  rose.  The 
persecutions  of  the  Dissenters,  who  had  so  recently  been  all-powerful, 
and  the  navigation  laws  could  lead  only  to  trouble.  The  first 
outbreak  came  as  early  as  1663,  when  the  celebrations  of  the 
blessed  Restoration  were  still  fresh  in  every  one's  memory.  Public 
feeling,  however,  was  not  yet  ripe ;  the  plot,  conducted  by  a  few  ob 
scure  extremists  of  the  Puritan  faction,  failed  miserably,  and  some 
of  the  ringleaders  were  hung.  No  heed  was  taken  of  this  warning. 
The  profligate  government  of  Charles  II.  cared  only  for  the  money  to 
be  squeezed  from  Virginia,  and  enforced  the  Navigation  Act,  until  the 
trade  of  the  plantation  was  almost  extinguished.  Charles  even  went 
farther,  and  granted  to  Lords  Arlington  and  Culpepper  the  whole  of 
Virginia.  Thus  the  colonists  saw  themselves  deprived  not  only  of 
their  trade,  but  of  the  very  titles  to  the  land  they  owned,  and  the  vile 
government  in  England  did  not  in  the  colony  lack  petty  imitators  of 
their  feeble  policy,  or  of  their  gross  corruptions  and  oppressions.  The 
justices  levied  taxes  for  their  own  emolument,  and  a  wretched  policy 
of  severity  was  pursued  toward  the  Indians,  which  exasperated  with 
out  subduing  them.  The  Church,  in  whose  behalf  the  government 
persecuted  Dissenters,  fell  into  contempt.  The  priests  were  licentious 
and  incompetent,  and  corruption  and  extortion  prevailed.  Frontier 
forts  were  established,  many  of  which  were  useless  grievances.  In 
1674  a  second  revolt  was  on  the  point  of  breaking  forth ;  but  there 


20  HISTORY  OF  THE 

were  no  leaders,  and  the  people,  unable  to  lead  themselves,  were  in 
duced  by  some  partial  reforms  to  remain  quiet.  There  had  been 
no  election  of  burgesses  since  the  Restoration,  the  ultra-royalist 
Assembly  then  elected  having  been  continued  from  year  to  year  by 
prorogation ;  and  the  mere  existence  of  such  an  Assembly  was  a  constant 
reminder  to  the  people  of  the  liberties  they  had  lost  and  of  the  rights 
which  were  infringed.  Everything  was  in  a  combustible  condition. 
An  immediate  grievance  and  a  popular  leader  were  alone  required  to 
produce  rebellion,  and  neither  was  long  wanting.  The  Indian  policy 
led  to  an  Indian  war,  and  for  some  unexplained  reason  Berkeley  dis 
banded  the  forces  gathered  to  repress  it. 

We  are  left  to  suppose  that  Berkeley  regarded  Indian  troubles  as  a 
wholesome  antidote  to  domestic  ones ;  but  in  murders  by  Indians  the 
colonists  had  a  sharp,  pressing  grievance,  and  in  Nathaniel  Bacon  they 
found  a  leader.  Bacon  was  a  young  Englishman  who  had  been  but  a 
short  time  in  the  colony ;  but  he  was  one  of  the  Council,  and  of  so  great 
a  popularity  that  he  not  improbably  excited  the  jealousy  of  Berke 
ley.  He  was  brave,  rich,  eloquent,  well-meaning,  apparently  ambi 
tious,  and  certainly  far  from  wise.  It  seems  probable  that  the  real 
movers  in  the  business  were  two  planters  named  Drummond  and  Law 
rence,  who  used  Bacon  and  his  popularity  to  advance  their  own  ends, 
and  to  accomplish  changes  more  important  than  the  punishment  of 
Indian  hostilities.  Drummond  and  Lawrence,  the  latter  especially, 
evidently  intended  a  general  reform  of  all  the  great  abuses,  and  prob 
ably  used  the  pretext  of  the  Indian  wars  for  this  object.  Bacon,  in 
response  to  the  popular  call,  after  having  in  vain  applied  for  a  com 
mission,  marched  at  the  head  of  a  few  men  against  the  savages,  and  in 
the  mean  time  Berkeley  proclaimed  Bacon  and  his  men  rebels,  and 
pursued  them  vainly  with  troops.  While  Berkeley  was  absent  the 
revolt  became  general,  breaking  out  in  the  lower  counties,  and  he  was 
obliged  to  retreat.  The  Governor,  at  last  aware  of  the  rising  storm, 
had  issued  writs  for  a  new  Assembly,  to  which  Bacon  was  elected. 
On  his  way  thither  Berkeley  arrested  him,  but  soon  released  him  on 
parole ;  and  when  the  Assembly  met,  Bacon  read  at  the  bar  a  written 
confession  and  apology,  and  was  thereupon  pardoned  and  readmitted 
to  the  Council.  Shortly  after  this  submission  Bacon  fled  on  suspicion 
of  a  plot  against  his  life,  and  returned  to  Jamestown  with  a  large 
force.  After  scenes  of  much  excitement,  he  appealed,  not  without  a 
show  of  violence,  to  the  Assembly,  who  made  him  their  general,  vin 
dicated  his  course,  and  sent  a  letter  approving  him  to  England.  The 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  21 

Assembly  also  endeavored  to  reform  abuses,  and  were  resisted  by  Berke 
ley,  who,  in  his  turn,  wrote  a  letter  to  England  for  aid.  The  Assem 
bly,  now  entirely  committed  to  Bacon,  were  persisting  in  their  redress 
of  grievances  when  Berkeley  dissolved  them.  Bacon,  powerful  both 
by  the  support  of  the  Assembly  and  the  troops,  extorted  the  necessary 
commissions  from  the  Governor,  arid  marched  against  the  Indians.  As 
soon  as  he  was  gone  Berkeley  once  more  proclaimed  him  a  rebel. 
Bacon,  on  hearing  this  news,  in  the  midst  of  a  successful  campaign, 
retraced  his  steps ;  and  Berkeley,  deserted  by  his  troops,  fled  to  Acco- 
mac.  Bacon  was  now  supreme.  He  summoned  a  convention  of  all 
the  principal  men  at  the  Middle  Plantation  to  replace  the  Assembly, 
and  pledged  them  to  his  support,  and  to  resistance,  even  to  England,  if 
their  wrongs  were  not  redressed.  He  then  marched  once  more  against 
the  Indians ;  but  in  his  absence  the  fleet  which  he  had  sent  to  capture 
Berkeley  was  betrayed,  and  the  Governor  returned  to  Jamestown  at 
the  head  of  his  would-be  captors.  The  Baconians  in  Jamestown  at 
once  made  peace  with  Berkeley,  and  Bacon  once  more  returned.  After 
a  mere  travesty  of  a  siege,  Berkeley,  again  deserted  by  his  men,  fled  to 
Accomac ;  and  Bacon,  entering  Jamestown  in  triumph,  burned  the  town. 
Shortly  after,  Bacon  died  from  a  fever  contracted  in  the  marshes,  and 
his  followers  scattered  at  once,  to  be  caught  in  detail  and  executed  by 
Berkeley.  So  ended  the  Virginia  rebellion.  Nothing  was  gained  ;  the 
political  energies  of  the  people  were  exhausted,  and  they  sank  back 
into  apathy  for  the  next  century.  Yet  every  circumstance  was  favor 
able  to  the  popular  cause.  The  grievances  were  intolerable,  the  whole 
people  were  ripe  for  revolt,  and  their  oppressor,  Berkeley,  was  a  nar 
row-minded  and  tyrannical  man  of  the  old  Cavalier  school,  whose  pris 
tine  popularity  had  totally  disappeared.  As  between  Bacon  and  Berke 
ley  there  can  be  but  one  decision.  The  former  was  brave,  impetuous, 
and  honest ;  the  latter  acted  with  consistent  bad  faith  from  the  out 
set.  Yet  Bacon  was  utterly  incompetent  for  the  task  before  him. 
He  lacked  discretion,  and  when  placed  in  a  position  too  trying  for  his 
powers  wasted  his  opportunities,  so  that  his  death  threw  the  whole  game 
into  Berkeley's  hands.  But  the  real  causes  of  the  failure  of  this  ill- 
starred  insurrection  lay  deeper.  The  people  were  dependent  entirely 
on  leaders,  or,  rather,  on  a  leading  class,  and  could  not  manage  for 
themselves.  Their  sympathies  were  with  Bacon,  and  when  he  appeared 
he  carried  everything  with  him  by  sheer  force,  courage,  and  readiness 
to  bear  responsibility.  The  whole  movement  rested  on  Bacon  and  his 
personal  popularity.  When  Bacon  was  absent,  the  people  fell  back 


22  HISTORY  OF  THE 

helplessly  into  the  hands  of  Berkeley,  the  only  other  man  ready  to 
take  a  determined  lead.  Bat  the  life  of  a  single  man  was  but  a  slen 
der  staff  to  support  a  successful  revolution,  and  when  it  broke  every 
thing  went  to  immediate  wreck.  The  people,  much  as  they  hated 
Berkeley  and  longed  for  reform,  had  no  cohesion,  no  definiteness  of 
aim,  and  no  persistence.  The  prominent  gentlemen  at  their  head  hav 
ing  failed  them,  the  Virginians  could  bring  none  from  their  own  midst 
to  supply  their  places.  With  as  good  a  cause  and  as  general  a  sym 
pathy  as  any  popular  movement  ever  had,  or  ever  could  have,  Bacon's 
rebellion  came  to  nothing,  and  left  no  impress  on  the  state,  because 
the  people  themselves  were  not  fit  to  conduct  their  own  affairs  in  try 
ing  times.  In  Virginia,  while  there  was  plenty  of  courage,  love  of 
freedom,  and  good  English  pluck,  there  was  not  enough  of  that  dogged 
persistence  and  quiet  sagacity  which  wrung  victory  from  the  Stuarts 
in  Old  and  New  England.  In  Virginia  resistance  became  turbulence, 
and  revolution  degenerated  into  rebellion.  The  nature  of  the  immigra 
tion,  the  occupations  of  the  people,  their  mode  of  life,  and  the  general 
structure  of  society  all  led  to  this  result.  An  aristocracy  governed  the 
country ;  but  in  the  time  of  Bacon  it  was  a  timid  and  half-grown  aris 
tocracy,  and  when  the  pinch  came  it  failed.  The  people,  deprived  of 
the  natural  leaders  which  circumstances  gave  them,  had  no  substi 
tutes  to  put  in  their  place,  for  the  powerful  aristocracy  of  1776  was  in 
its  youth  a  century  earlier,  and  in  no  condition  to  head,  control,  and 
lead  to  a  successful  issue  a  great  popular  movement.  Society  in  Vir 
ginia  was  so  constituted  that  without  strong  leaders  in  the  ruling  class 
the  people  were  helpless. 

This  rebellion,  however,  was  the  legitimate  result  of  the  great 
movement  which  had  just  convulsed  England,  and  which  was  des 
tined,  before  it  had  spent  its  force,  to  remove  another  Stuart  from 
the  English  throne.  The  strength  of  the  movement  in  Virginia  re 
sided  in  the  Puritan  party,  which  had  grown  up  there  during  the 
Protectorate.  Its  weakness  lay  in  the  latent  royalism  of  the  people, 
in  their  inability  to  conduct  a  slow  but  persistent  resistance,  and  in 
the  failure  of  the  aristocracy.  As  a  result,  mismanagement  was  able 
to  waste  the  power  of  the  movement,  and  to  accelerate  the  reaction 
which  threw  Virginia  into  a  state  of  torpor  for  nearly  a  century,  and 
long  arrested  the  progress  of  political  development.  With  the  failure 
of  Bacon's  rebellion  the  second  period  in  Virginian  history  comes  to 
an  end. 

Shortly  after  Bacon's  death  arrived  an  English  regiment  and  royal 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  23 

commissioners.  The  King  was  disposed  to  be  merciful,  and  had  is 
sued  a  proclamation  of  pardon,  but  it  came  too  late.  Berkeley  had 
already  butchered  a  number  of  influential  men,  including  Drummond, 
and  in  some  cases  had  confiscated  their  estates  to  his  own  use.  The 
Assembly  repealed  all  Bacon's  laws,  although  they  afterward  re-enacted 
some  of  the  most  salutary,  and  proved  themselves  thoroughly  subser 
vient  to  Berkeley  in  attainting  and  condemning  whomever  he  desired, 
although  they  finally  succeeded  in  checking  the  executions  and  miti 
gating  the  punishments  of  the  captured  insurgents.  At  last  Berkeley 
was  recalled,  and  died  soon  after  his  arrival  in  England,  embittered  in 
his  last  moments,  according  tp  a  most  probable  story,  by  the  well- 
earned  gibe  which  the  amiable  Charles  flung  at  him. 

Colonel  Herbert  Jeffreys  succeeded  Berkeley,  and  ruled  for 
about  a  year,  until  his  death  in  1678.  He  was  succeeded 
by  Sir  Henry  Chicheley,  Berkeley's  Deputy-governor,  and  he  in  turn 
by  Lord  Culpepper,  one  of  the  ornaments  of  Charles's  Court  and 
councils,  upon  whom  the  Governorship  of  Virginia  had  been  bestow 
ed  for  life  in  1675.  The  bad  effects  arising  from  the  failure  of  the 
popular  movement  were  soon  perceived.  The  new  charter  which  the 
agents  of  Virginia  had  been  urgently  asking,  and  with  a  fair  prospect 
of  success,  was  quickly  consigned  to  oblivion.  The  Assembly  was  to 
be  summoned  but  once  in  two  years,  and  was  then  to  have  the  right 
of  sitting  for  only  fourteen  days.  Culpepper,  on  his  arrival, 
found  Virginia  tranquil.  Jeffreys  had  made  peace  with  the 
Indians,  and  the  people  were  disposed  to  grant  anything  to  the  dis 
penser  of  royal  pardons.  Cul pepper's  sole  object,  however,  was  ex 
tortion,  which  he  freely  practised.  During  his  absence  in  England 
in  the  following  summer,  the  turbulence  of  the  Virginians  broke  out 
in  renewed  disturbances,  caused  by  the  low  price  of  tobacco  and  the 
legislative  establishment  of  ports  of  shipment.  Culpepper,  on  his  re 
turn,  renewed  the  demand  of  the  commissioners  of  James  I.  to  exam 
ine,  in  behalf  of  the  King,  the  records  of  the  Assembly — a  claim  the 
Assembly  always  resisted.  After  hanging  the  leaders  in  the  plant- 
cutting  riot,  therefore,  Culpepper  turned  his  attention  to  the  Assem 
bly,  and  Robert  Beverley,  the  clerk  of  the  House,  and  a  former  adher 
ent  of  Berkeley,  who  refused  to  give  up  the  records,  was  persecuted  al 
most  to  death  by  the  exasperated  and  arbitrary  Governor.  Culpepper's 
administration  was,  as  a  whole,  one  of  simple  greed  and  violent  ex 
actions,  varied  by  an  extensive  swindle  in  raising  and  lowering  the 
value  of  the  coin.  By  continued  absence  from  his  post  he  soon  for- 


24  HISTORY  OF  THE 

felted  his  patent,  and  Lord  Howard  of  Effing-ham  succeeded  to  the 
government  of  Virginia.  He,  too,  came  to  make  his  fortune,  and  neg 
lected  no  means  to  further  that  laudable  end.  He  shared  the  clerks' 
perquisites,  established  a  new  and  oppressive  Court,  cheated 
*g  ^~  the  Assembly  by  means  of  a  new  seal,  and  carried  out  in  a 
petty  way  the  stupid  tyranny  of  James  II.  By  royal  wis 
dom  printing  was  abolished  in  Virginia,  the  prisoners  taken  in  Mon- 
mouth's  rebellion  we're  sent  out  as  convicts,  the  Navigation  Act  was  en 
forced,  the  appointment  of  all  small  local  officers  was  absorbed  by  the 
Governor,  and  Virginia  did  not  flourish.  The  Governor  became  rich 
er,  the  province  poorer,  and  the  people  more  discontented,  while  vol 
untary  immigration  almost  ceased.  The  unregulated  love  of  inde 
pendence  and  the  turbulence  which  the  Virginians  mistook  for  po 
litical  opposition  were  once  more  displayed.  Censures,  imprisonment, 
and  general  servility  were  the  first  effects;  then  more  oppressions, 
riots,  and  impending  insurrection,  until  Effingham  finally  embarked 
for  England,  only  to  find  on  his  arrival  that  James  had  been  driven 
from  the  throne.  Thus  ended  the  Stuart  domination.  The  reigns  of 
Charles  and  James,  the  one  contemptible  for  its  meanness  and  sor 
did  corruption,  the  other  for  its  weak  and  stupid  oppression,  are  the 
greatest  blots  on  the  history  of  the  English  race.  Bad  enough  at 
home,  they  were  even  meaner,  more  oppressive,  and  more  corrupt  in 
the  provinces,  for  the  people  there  were  more  helpless.  Like  master 
like  man :  Charles  debauched  and  debased  England,  and  Culpepper 
and  Effingham  degraded  their  governments  and  almost  ruined  Vir 
ginia.  In  the  whole  range  of  American  colonial  history  there  are  to 
be  found  no  administrations  at  once  so  contemptible,  so  sordid,  and 
so  injurious  as  those  inflicted  upon  Virginia  by  the  noble  governors 
appointed  by  Charles  II. 

One  event  but  little  noticed  at  the  time  rises  above  the  sorry  details 
of  this  period.  In  1684  Virginia  sent  delegates  "to  Albany  to  meet 
the  agents  of  Massachusetts  and  the  Governor  of  New  York,  in  order 
to  discuss  the  Indian  troubles,  and  thus  another  uncertain  step  was 
taken  on  the  road  to  confederation.  Every  event  of  this  nature,  no 
matter  how  trifling,  acquires  importance  in  marking  the  slow  stages 
by  which  the  principle  of  union  rose  by  external  pressure  from  the 
jarring  interests  of  separate  colonies. 

But  little  immediate  benefit  accrued  to  Virginia  from  the  English 
revolution.  Her  energies  had  been  wasted  in  1675  instead  of  being 
reserved  for  1689,  when  she  could  have  taken  advantage  of  the  times, 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  25 

and  made  solid  political  gains.  Effingham,  in  England,  continued  to 
be  Governor,  and  Sir  Francis  Nicholson,  lately  expelled  by  a 
popular  rising  from  New  York,  came  out  as  deputy.  Nichol 
son  tried  to  endear  himself  to  the  people  by  the  common  arts  of  a 
demagogue,  while  he  obeyed  his  patron  in  refusing  to  call  an  Assem 
bly  until  absolutely  forced  to  by  popular  discontent.  The  only 
event  of  his  administration  was  the  grant  of  the  charter  of 
William  and  Mary  College  to  James  Blair,  who  was  for  many  years  a 
noted  character  in  Virginia.  An  active,  energetic  Scotchman,  brim 
ming  over  with  the  controversial  spirit,  more  of  a  politician  than  a 
clergyman,  yet  zealous  in  both  capacities,  James  Blair  played  an  im 
portant  part  in  the  colony.  He  was  the  head  of  the  college  and  the 
head  of  the  Church  ;  and  the  latter  position  brought  him  into  constant 
collision  with  the  Governor  on  ecclesiastical  matters,  until  finally  he 
became  the  leader,  and  often  the  successful  leader,  of  the  opposition 
party.  His  success  was  marred  by  his  disputatious  temperament,  his 
readiness  to  quarrel,  and  his  stubbornness  of  opinion.  But  his  sturdy 
good  sense,  official  position,  courage,  and  high  character  made  him  a 
serviceable  man  to  Virginia  in  days  when  competent  party  leaders 
were  rarely  to  be  found  in  the  colony. 

Virginia  at  this  time  seems  to  have  been  selected  as  a  resting-place 
for  all  unpopular  governors.  Sir  Edmund  Andros,  fresh  from  his 
unlucky  New  England  government,  succeeded  Nicholson.  He  ap 
pears  to  have  been  somewhat  sobered  by  the  treatment  of  Massa 
chusetts,  and  to  have  considerably  softened  his  arbitrary  tastes.  His 
administration  was,  on  the  whole,  a  good  one ;  but  he  gave  offence  by 
enforcing  the  Navigation  Act,  and  fell  into  the  great  error  of  a  quarrel 
with  the  commissary,  Blair..  After  a  term  of  six  years,  he  was  suc 
ceeded  by  Sir  Francis  Nicholson,  commissioned  this  time  as 
Governor-in-chief.  Nicholson  brawled  on  through  his  second 
administration  for  nearly  seven  years,  making  many  stupid  speeches, 
and  quarrelling  with  various  persons  on  a  variety  of  subjects,  public 
and  private,  and  ultimately  with  Dr.  Blair,  who,  after  a  prolonged 
struggle,  defeated  him,  and  drove  him  from  the  colony.  Although 
arbitrary,  Nicholson  was  not  corrupt ;  and  had  he  been  less  violent,  and 
not  tasked  a  by  no  means  powerful  mind  with  extended  schemes  for 
the  general  defence  and  government  of  the  colonies,  he  might  have 
made  a  respectable  Governor.  As  it  was,  he  effected  nothing,  and  the 
most  remarkable  event  of  his  administration  was  the  control  which  the 
Assembly  succeeded  in  obtaining  over  the  treasury.  By  Nicholson's 


26  HISTORY  OF  THE 

neglect  or  indifference,  the  burgesses  made  the  treasurer  of  the  colony 
an  officer  of  their  own,  which  was  a  valuable  gain  at  the  time,  and  of 
the  highest  importance  in  the  future  when  the  purse  was  the  great 
weapon  of  the  Assembly  against  the  Governor. 

In  1704  the  Earl  of  Orkney  was  made  titular  Governor  of  Virginia, 
a  sinecure  which  he  held  for  forty  years  at  an  annual  profit  of 
£1200.  Edward  Nott  was  the  first  deputy  under  this  new  ar 
rangement,  and  died  in  office,  after  an  uneventful  administration  of 
two  years.  Robert  Hunter  was  appointed  his  successor ;  but  the  ship  in 
which  he  sailed  was  captured,  and  on  his  return  to  England  he  received 
another  government  in  lieu  of  that  of  Virginia.  Connection  with  one 
of  the  greatest  Englishmen  of  the  day  has  given  to  Hunter's  name  a 
peculiar  interest.  Jonathan  Swift  was  his  friend,  and  desired  to  go 
out  with  him  as  Bishop  of  Virginia.  The  plan  was  seriously  discussed 
between  the  two,  and  there  are  several  allusions  to  it  in  Swift's  jour 
nals  and  letters ;  but  for  some  unexplained  reason  the  scheme  came 
to  nothing.  The  incident  lies  outside  the  path  of  Virginian  history. 
It  concerns  a  Governor  who  never  arrived,  and  a  man  who  rarely  re 
ferred  to  the  American  colonies  except  as  the  abodes  of  malefactors. 
Yet  when  the  name  of  Swift  indirectly  and  faintly  touches  the  theme 
of  Virginian  history,  we  cannot  but  turn  aside  to  speculate  on  the  pos 
sible  results  to  the  colonies  and  to  the  world  if  that  dark  and  mighty 
genius  of  the  reign  of  Anne  had  been  transferred  to  America  as  the 
head  of  the  English  Church  in  the  young  West. 

The  history  of  Virginia  at  this  time  becomes  little  more  than  a  list 
of  governors,  well-meaning  men  of  ordinary  abilities,  who  for 
the  most  part  conducted  their  governments  in  a  lumbering, 
quiet  fashion,  treating  the  people  pretty  well,  and,  as  a  rule,  doing  lit 
tle  to  improve  the  methods  of  administration  or  develop  the  resources 
of  the  country.  On  the  other  hand,  the  nagging  resistance  of  the 
burgesses  to  the  Governor,  simply  because  he  was  a  Governor,  and 
therefore  made  to  quarrel  with,  now  begins.  Yet  it  was  this  snarling, 
and  often  unreasonable  and  factious  but  ever  persistent  and  watchful 
opposition,  which  slowly  trained  the  people,  accustomed  them  to  Par 
liamentary  and  constitutional  principles,  and  gradually  raised  their 
political  thought  to  the  level  of  1776.  In  this  period  of  rest,  too,  the 
various  social  elements  which  had  gathered  in  Virginia  during  the 
stormy  years  of  the  seventeenth  century  crystallized.  It  was  then 
that  the  social  fabric  which  we  find  in  existence  when  the  English 
colonies  entered  upon  their  career  as  a  nation  was  built  up  and  con- 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  ll\'  AMERICA.  27 

solidated.  Politically  barren  as  the  eighteenth  century  is  in  Virginian, 
and,  indeed,  in  all  the  colonial  history,  it  is  socially  the  most  impor 
tant  period.  From  those  times  we  can  learn  who  and  what  the  peo 
ple  were  who  fought  the  Revolution  and  founded  the  United  States. 

In  the  interval  which  ensued  after  the  death  of  Nott,  natives  of  the 
province,  all  Virginian  grandees,  were  at  the  head  of  affairs  as  Presi 
dents  of  the  Council,  until  at  last  a  new  Governor  came  to  them 
,  '  in  the  person  of  Alexander  Spotswood,  a  Scotchman  and  a 
soldier,  active  and  energetic — the  best  of  the  eighteenth  century  gov 
ernors — and  possessed  of  some  imagination  and  of  enlarged  views. 
Spotswood  brought  with  him  the  grant  of  the  writ  of  Habeas  Corpus, 
and,  thus  provided,  made  friends  with  his  first  Assembly.  He  was  high 
ly  pleased  with  his  prospects,  and  his  description  of  the  colony  reflects 
very  accurately  the  grateful  political  lethargy  into  which  Virginia  had 
sunk.  Spotswood  says :  "  This  government  is  in  perfect  peace  and 
tranquillity,  under  a  due  obedience  to  the  royal  authority,  and  a  gen 
tlemanly  conformity  to  the  Church  of  England."  The  political  apa 
thy  of  the  times  was  deep  enough,  but  it  was  not  such  absolute  tor 
por  as  the  new  Governor  supposed,  and  he  was  soon  rudely  unde 
ceived  on  this  point,  for  the  next  year  we  find  him  wrangling  with 
his  burgesses. 

Spotswood,  however,  proved  himself  very  superior  to  the  ordinary 
run  of  colonial  governors.  His  enterprise  and  his  liberal  opinions, 
indeed,  became  the  causes  of  his  recall  by  the  Home  Government,  who 
did  not  at  that  period  admire  too  great  a  display  of  such  qualities; 
but  while  in  office  Spotswood  did  much  for  the  colony.  He  subdued 
an  insurrection  in  North  Carolina;  fought  and  finally  made  peace 
with  the  Indians ;  and  endeavored  sedulously,  but  in  vain,  to  improve 
the  condition  of  the  Church.  His  attempts  at  ecclesiastical  reforms 
only  led  him  into  fresh  difficulties,  a  final  collision  with  Commissa 
ry  Blair,  and  ultimate  defeat  at  the  hands  of  the  vestries.  Spots- 
wood  also,  at  his  own  expense,  sought  to  carry  out  various  benevolent 
schemes  for  the  civilization  of  the  savages,  and  established  schools 
for  them  at  outlying  posts,  where  he  placed  competent  teachers.  The 
principal  school  was  at  Christanna,  where  he  had  at  one  time  over 
seventy  Indian  children  in  regular  attendance.  The  years  of  peace 
with  the  Indians,  obtained  by  Spotswood's  policy,  gave  opportunity 
for  extending  the  settlements,  for  a  great  development  of  material 
prosperity,  and  for  the  growth  and  consolidation  of  an  aristocracy 
capable  of  furnishing  leaders  to  the  people  of  Virginia.  The  Gov- 


28  HISTORY  OF  THE 

ernor's  activity  also  brought  about  friendly  relations  with  the  colo 
nists  of  the  Carolinas,  whom  the  Virginians  assisted  against  the  In 
dians  as  well  as  in  their  domestic  difficulties,  and  thus  began  to  knit 
the  bonds  which  afterward  held  together  the  Southern  group  of  colo 
nies.  Spotswood  also  directed  his  energies  to  exploration,  and  led  a 
party  in  person  across  the  Blue  Ridge — an  expedition  which  made  no 
little  noise  in  its  day.  He  strove  to  organize  the  militia  and  put  it 
in  good  condition  for  service,  and  he  strenuously  urged  the  home 
government  to  build  a  line  of  forts  on  the  western  frontier,  to  guard 
against  Indian  attacks  and  possible  French  encroachments.  The 
events  of  the  French  war  fully  justified  the  soundness  and  wise  fore 
sight  of  this  advice,  but  at  the  moment  it  only  served  to  hasten  the 
recall  of  the  over-zealous  governor  who  had  devised  it.  Spotswood 
was  a  vigorous  administrator,  but,  like  many  other  men  of  the  same 
type  of  mind,  he  lacked  capacity  to  deal  successfully  with  those  who 
differed  from  him.  He  could  originate  and  command,  but  he  could 
neither  manage  nor  conciliate.  He  wrangled  with  the  Assembly 
throughout  his  administration,  and  the  burgesses  found  him  a  diffi 
cult  man  to  control.  Taxes  were,  of  course,  the  chief  bone  of  conten 
tion;  and  as  the  Governor  was  able  and  determined,  while  the  bur 
gesses  were  factious  and  obstinate,  the  course  of  public  affairs  seldom 
ran  very  smoothly. 

Spotswood  was  replaced  by  Hugh  Drysdale,  a  great  contrast  to 
his  bustling  predecessor,  and  a  mild,  inoffensive   man,  who 
at  once  made  peace  with  the  opposition,  and  died  after  four 
years  of  tranquil  rule.     He  was   succeeded  by  William  Gooch,  an 
other  Scotchman   and  soldier,  who  came  in  with  George  II. 
at  the  moment  when  Walpole  had  just  obtained  a  fresh  lease 
of  power.     By  his  own  shrewdness,  which  led  him  to  form  a  coali 
tion  with  the  Council,  in  which  the  royal  quit-rents  alone  were  sacri 
ficed,  and  by  the  flourishing  condition  of  the  colony,  now  reaping 
the   benefits   of   Spotswood's   administration,  Gooch   ruled  Virginia 
acceptably  and  well  for  twenty-two  years.     This  long  term  was  the 
most  uneventful  period  in  the  annals  of  the  province.     The  Governor 
was  moderate  and  sensible,  and  the  usual  contentions  were  in  great 
measure  avoided.     The  most  important  event  of  all  these  years  was 
the  co-operation  of  Virginia  and  her  sister  colonies  with  the  mother 
country  in  the  fruitless  expedition  against  Carthagena,  which 
served  merely  as  one  more  step  in  the  development  of  union. 
Wealth  and  population  increased  rapidly  while  Gooch  was  ruling 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  29 

the  province  so  quietly.  Printing  was  introduced,  education  began 
to  be  slowly  diffused,  and  its  improving  effects  felt  among  the  upper 
classes  of  society.  The  close  of  Gooch's  otherwise  calm  administra 
tion  was  disturbed  by  religious  difficulties.  The  loose  and  often 
licentious  character  of  the  clergy  made  the  Established  Church  but 
a  feeble  bulwark  against  the  tide  of  religious  enthusiasm  which  swept 
in  with  Whitefield,  and  the  old  cry  was  therefore  raised  against  dis 
senters  by  those  who  found  the  Established  Church  in  conformity 
with  their  habits  and  valuable  to  their  worldly  interests,  if  not  bene 
ficial  to  their  souls.  In  submission  to  this  feeling,  Gooch  attempted 
to  suppress  heterodox  opinions  by  all  the  powers  of  the  State,  and 
there  was  a  good  deal  of  petty  persecution,  which  left  the  Church 
weaker  and  more  unpopular  even  than  before. 

After  Gooch's  departure  there  was  a  short  interval  of  Presidents 
of  the  Council  as  acting  governors,  and  then  a  successor  from 
England,  Robert  Dinwiddie,  whose  administration  was  the  dawn 
of  a  new  era  in  Virginia.  The  long  repose  was  broken,  and 
the  forces  that  had  been  gathering  strength  began  to  come  in  play. 
Dinwiddie  started  with  a  large  amount  of  unpopularity,  which  he  had 
incurred  when  surveyor  of  customs  in  the  colony ;  and  this  dislike  of 
the  new  Governor  was  not  diminished  by  his  announcement  of  the 
royal  dissent  to  several  bills  which  had  received  the  approbation  of 
Gooch.  He  also  interfered  oppressively  with  the  ordinary  method 
of  acquiring  land  by  a  simple  warrant  of  survey,  and  demanded  in 
stead  a  formal  patent,  accompanied  by  a  fee  for  the  official  seal.  In 
1753  the  Assembly  remonstrated  against  this  extortion  and 
injustice ;  and  remonstrance  now  had  deep  meaning,  for  the 
colony  was  no  longer  poor  and  weak  as  at  the  time  of  Bacon's  re 
bellion.  Once  more,  after  a  long  interval  of  quiet,  Virginia  found 
herself  opposed  to  her  Governor  on  a  question  of  principle.  But 
times  had  greatly  changed  since  she  had  last  occupied  this  hostile  at 
titude.  Her  revenues  were  good,  her  population  had  increased  and 
consolidated,  and  there  was  a  large,  wealthy,  united,  and  patriotic  aris 
tocracy  ready  to  lead  the  people  intelligently  and  well.  In  this  first 
instance  of  resistance  the  Assembly  sent  Peyton  Randolph  to  Eng 
land,  with  a  handsome  salary,  to  protest  against  the  Governor's  action, 
and  they  denounced  any  one  who  should  submit  to  the  exactions  of 
the  new  patents.  The  current  of  parliamentary  resistance  in  Virginia 
began  to  flow  in  those  channels  which  have  always  led  either  to  re 
dress  or  revolution.  At  the  next  session  the  burgesses  refused  sup- 


30  HISTORY  OF  THE 

plies,  on  the  ground  that  their  privileges  were  in  danger.  These  were 
ominous  words,  and  might  well  have  recalled  to  Dinwiddie  the  lan 
guage  of  another  English  Assembly  a  hundred  years  before.  At  the 
next  meeting,  in  January,  1754,  they  voted  £10,000,  but  clog 
ged  the  bill  with  various  provisos  against  invasions  by  pre 
rogative. 

But  events  were  near  which  were  destined  to  throw  power  still 
more  into  the  hands  of  the  representatives  of  the  people.  America 
was  on  the  eve  of  great  changes,  in  which  Virginia  was  to  take  a 
prominent  part.  While  the  long  repose  which  the  policy  of  Walpole 
gave  to  England  and  her  dependencies  had  allowed  the  political  en 
ergies  of  the  people  to  gather  once  more  the  force  which  had  been 
expended  in  the  conflicts  of  the  seventeenth  century,  a  new  and  im 
portant  element  in  colonial  questions  had  come  into  existence.  An 
other  nation  had  gradually  assumed  a  position  which  made  it  a 
weighty  factor  in  the  development  of  the  English  empire  in  America, 
The  French  had  extended  their  power  by  means  of  their  influence 
with  the  Indians,  and  having  slowly  worked  their  way  to  the  valley 
of  the  Ohio,  now  planned  to  connect  by  a  chain  of  forts  their  pos 
sessions  in  Canada  and  Louisiana,  and  thus  hem  in  the  English  colo 
nies  and  prevent  their  progress  toward  the  West.  It  was  a  grand 
though  impracticable  scheme,  and  its  overthrow  was  to  cost  the  blood 
and  treasure  of  a  world-wide  war. 

In  London,  about  this  time,  an  Ohio  company  had  been  formed, 
in  which  Dinwiddie  and  many  prominent  Virginians  were  inter 
ested.  Thus  colonization  was  to  be  favored  and  extended,  and 
it  was  now  inevitable  that  French  and  English  should  soon  come 
into  collision.  When  they  did  so,  the  first  effect  was  to  throw  the 
power  in  the  colonies  into  the  hands  of  those  who  laid  taxes.  In 
this  way  the  Virginian  Assembly,  working  on  Dinwiddie's  necessities, 
and  aided  by  their  control  of  the  finances  through  the  medium  of 
the  treasurer,  affirmed  and  established  their  supremacy  in  the  State. 
That  the  substantial  victory  remained  with  the  Assembly  is  shown 
by  the  fact  that  in  1754  they  granted  £20,000  without  limitations, 
despite  their  quarrels  about  granting  half  that  amount  a  few  months 
before.  Thus  the  burgesses  gained  their  first  victory ;  but  the  war 
had  two  other  important  results,  which  greatly  affected  the  future 
march  of  events.  It  removed  the  hostile  power  which  had  served  to 
bind  them  to  the  powerful  protection  of  the  mother  country,  and  it 
taught  the  colonists  the  force  and  value  of  united  strength. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  31 

To  trace  the  history  of  Virginia  during  this  great  conflict  is  to  fol 
low  the  career  of  one  man.  The  long  period  of  dependent  life  is 
over ;  the  dead  level  of  colonial  history  is  at  an  end  ;  the  monotonous 
average  of  provincial  respectability  is  broken,  and  great  men  rise  up 
whose  characters  and  abilities  have  shed  an  enduring  lustre  upon 
the  land  which  gave  them  birth.  The  time  had  come  when  Virginia 
would  produce  great  leaders  in  abundance.  The  most  illustrious  of 
all  these  distinguished  men  was  the  first  to  step  upon  the  stage  of 
public  affairs,  and  as  we  follow  the  early  life  of  George  Washington 
we  are  borne  on  through  all  the  swaying  fortunes  of  his  native  State 
in  the  long  and  bitter  struggles  of  the  old  French  war. 

Washington  sprang  from  a  good  English  stock,  and  from  one  of 
the  best  families  in  Virginia.  As  a  boy  he  was  fond  of  out -door 
life  and  athletic  sports;  but  the  most  striking  fact,  except  his  very 
meagre  education,  about  his  early  years,  is  the  soberness  of  mind  and 
solidity  of  judgment  which  he  displayed  from  the  first.  We  can 
hardly  imagine  Washington  destitute  of  some  heavy  responsibility. 
As  a  lad  of  sixteen,  surveying  in  the  wilds  of  West  Virginia,  he  mani 
fested  the  prudence  and  discretion  which  marked  his  subsequent  ca 
reer.  In  the  care  of  his  brother's  estate  he  showed  the  same  unself 
ishness  and  fidelity  as  when  he  filled  the  Presidential  chair,  and  was 
trusted  by  a  nation.  His  early  mission  to  the  French  brought  out  in 
the  strongest  way  his  habits  of  mind  and  great  moral  qualities.  An 
Adjutant -general  and  Major  in  the  Virginian  militia  at  the  age  of 
nineteen,  Washington  was  selected  by  Dinwiddie  to  negotiate  with 
the  Indians  and  the  French  at  Fort  Du  Quesne.  His  minute  journal 
of  that  expedition  has  been  preserved,  and  reads  like  the  account  of 
an  experienced  man  well  past  middle  life.  Not  only  is  there  none  of 
the  fun,  but  there  is  none  of  the  exuberance  of  youth.  The  narrative 
is  clear,  condensed,  and  vigorous;  but  there  is  throughout  the  all- 
pervading  sense  of  responsibility,  and  the  truthful,  forcible  simplici 
ty  which  gave  to  all  Washington's  writings  that  gray  soberness  of 
thought  and  expression  which  commands  the  deepest  respect  and 
most  implicit  confidence,  even  if  it  does  not  excite  our  imagination. 
In  every  event  of  this  dangerous  journey  we  see  the  unerring  judg 
ment,  the  deep  sagacity,  and  the  marvellous  foresight  which  made 
Washington  a  king  of  men.  The  conduct  of  this  perilous  mission 
was  in  every  way  characteristic.  Dangers  were  met  and  overcome ; 
hardships  were  endured;  crafty  savages  were  outwitted  and  timid 
ones  encouraged,  and  neither  hostile  Indians  nor  courteous  and  deceit- 


32  HISTORY  OF  THE 

fill  Frenchmen  could  divert  Washington  from  his  object,  or  mislead 
his  understanding  for  a  moment.  All  the  success  possible  under  the 
circumstances  was  obtained,  and  this  early  mission  and  the  journal 
which  preserves  its  history  reflect  alike  those  qualities  of  mind  and 
character  with  which  the  world  has  become  familiar. 

On  his  return,  Washington  was  appointed  to  the  second  place  in 
the  little  Virginian  army,  and  soon  after  marched  with  a  small  troop 
in  advance  of  the  main  body  against  the  enemy.  At  the  Little 
Meadows  he  surprised  a  party  of  French  and  Indians.  A  skirmish 
ensued,  and  M.  de  Jumonville,  a  young  French  officer,  was  killed. 
Thus  was  shed  the  first  blood  in  a  war  which  spread  over  the  whole 
globe,  and  the  results  of  which  were  a  principal  factor  in  the  Ameri 
can  Revolution.  The  death  of  De  Jumonville  is  one  of  the  trifling 
events  in  history  which  gain  from  accidental  circumstances  a  start 
ling  dramatic  eifect.  It  reveals  Washington  as  the  leading  figure  in 
a  petty  affray  which  was  the  signal  for  a  world -wide  conflict,  the 
prologue  to  that  great  revolutionary  drama  which,  opening  in  a  Mas 
sachusetts  village,  rolled  on  for  nearly  half  a  century,  involving  all 
the  civilized  nations  of  the  earth  in  its  progress,  and  closed  at  last 
upon  the  plains  of  Waterloo.  Thus  the  greatest  man  of  the  great 
revolutionary  period  was  present  at  the  obscure  beginning  of  those 
mighty  changes  which  convulsed  the  world,  and  conducted  the  petty 
action  which  was  the  nominal  cause  of  a  long  and  devastating  war. 

On  leaving  the  Little  Meadows,  Washington  was  joined  by  the 
main  body  of  the  army,  and  the  death  of  his  colonel  soon  after  left 
him  in  command.  He  pushed  on,  and  passed  the  Great  Meadows,  to 
which,  however,  he  was  soon  forced  to  return,  pursued  by  a  large  body 
of  the  enemy.  Throwing  himself  into  the  stockade  fort  which  he 
had  built  at  the  Meadows,  he  prepared  to  defend  himself ;  but  he 
was  greatly  outnumbered,  and  relief  was  hopeless.  Rather  than  pro 
long  a  useless  contest,  he  therefore  surrendered  on  honorable  terms, 
and  returned  to  Virginia,  where  his  services  and  misfortunes  were  un 
derstood,  and  where  he  was  received  with  all  honor.  He  soon  after 
stood  forward  as  the  champion  of  the  provincial  officers  by  refusing  to 
submit  to  the  degradation  in  rank  which  they  were  forced  to  undergo 
when  associated  with  those  who  bore  the  royal  commission.  Rather 
than  suffer  such  an  indignity  and  injustice,  Washington  resigned ;  but 
stirring  times  were  at  hand,  and  a  man  of  his  talents  and  reputation, 
filled  with  longing  for  a  military  career,  could  not  remain  in  retire 
ment.  From  the  feeble  and  inauspicious  beginning  of  a  handful  of 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  33 

provincials,  the  war  had  begun  to  assume  vast  dimensions.  Edward 
Braddock,  general  and  commander -in -chief  of  all  the  forces 
in  America,  was  sent  out  by  the  British  Government,  together 
with  a  fine  body  of  veteran  troops.  His  arrival  created  a  great  sen 
sation  in  Virginia,  which  looked  with  admiration  on  the  splendid  sol 
diery  of  Europe.  Almost  his  first  act,  and  the  wisest  one  of  his  brief 
career  in  America,  was  to  invite  Washington  to  enter  his  military 
family — an  invitation  which  was  at  once  accepted.  If  all  Braddock's 
actions  had  been  as  sensible  as  this,  he  would  have  met  with  a  very 
different  fate ;  but  he  had  all  the  ignorance  and  arrogance  of  an  Eng 
lishman  of  that  period  in  regard  to  America.  He  came  prepared  to 
despise  the  provincials,  and  he  was  profoundly  irritated  by  the  apathy 
of  the  legislatures  and  the  difficulty  of  supplying  his  requirements ; 
but  as  his  contempt  increased,  so  did  his  unpopularity.  The  more  he 
raged  and  stormed,  the  more  sullen  and  uncomplying  became  the  tem 
per  of  all  about  him.  Washington  expostulated,  but  in  vain ;  and 
if  it  had  not  been  for  the  exertions  of  Benjamin  Franklin,  Brad- 
dock  might  have  waited  a  lifetime  before  he  would  have  obtained 
the  necessary  means  of  transportation.  At  last  the  army,  counting 
about  two  thousand  effective  men,  of  whom  one-half  were  regulars, 
started  from  Will's  Creek  early  in  June.  They  pushed  on  slowly 
toward  Fort  Du  Quesne,  encountering  every  sort  of  difficulty,  and 
making  but  little  headway.  Washington  offered  a  great  deal  of 
good  advice,  which  was  sometimes  taken,  but  much  oftener  rejected ; 
until  at  last  Braddock's  provincial  mentor  was  struck  down  by  a  fe 
ver,  and  obliged  to  see  the  army  march  on  without  him.  He  man 
aged  to  overtake  it,  however,  before  the  culmination  of  the  campaign, 
and  in  season  to  be  present  at  the  disastrous  fight  near  Fort  Du 
Quesne.  Braddock,  relying  on  discipline  alone,  and  guided  only  by 
European  experience,  marched  straight  into  an  ambush,  was  surprised 
by  a  motley  crowd  of  French  and  Indians,  insisted  on  fighting  in  pla 
toons  and  according  to  recognized  principles,  and  saw  his  men  picked 
off  by  an  invisible  enemy  without  being  able  to  return  a  single  effec 
tive  shot.  The  result  was  ruin  and  massacre.  In  that  scene  of  car 
nage  Washington  displayed  the  highest  courage  and  efficiency,  and 
finally  brought  off  the  wounded  and  dying  general  and  the  shattered 
remnants  of  the  army.  The  fame  of  this  ill-starred  expedition  is  a 
good  proof  of  its  importance ;  but  this  importance  consists  not  so 
much  in  the  comparative  magnitude  of  the  expedition,  or  the  sudden 
ness  of  its  destruction,  as  in  the  lessons  which  it  taught.  Braddock 

3 


34  HISTORY  OF  THE 

and  his  army  were  typical  of  British  arrogance,  courage,  and  obstina 
cy.  They  offered  to  the  colonists  the  spectacle  of  the  finest  troops  in 
the  world  butchered  by  savages  because  of  their  own  unconquerable 
ignorance  and  unwillingness  to  learn.  They  showed  conclusively, 
also,  that  the  Englishman,  as  such,  was  not  necessarily  braver  than 
the  American,  while  the  latter  understood  the  exigencies  of  American 
warfare  far  better.  The  awe  inspired  by  the  British  arms  was  bro 
ken,  and  the  British  army  was  no  longer  a  name  to  conjure  with. 

On  his  return  from  Braddock's  expedition,Washington  was  put  in 
command  of  all  the  Virginian  troops.  During  the  years  of  war  which 
followed  this  appointment  he  occupied  a  position  curiously  like  that 
which  he  filled  in  the  war  for  Independence.  The  Assembly  was 
friendly  and  well  meaning,  but  as  incompetent  in  execution  as  most 
legislative  bodies.  The  Governor,  Dinwiddie,  was  more  competent, 
perhaps,  in  administration  than  the  Burgesses ;  but  he  was  unreason 
able  and  headstrong,  domineering,  and  at  times  insulting.  Wash 
ington,  generally  beloved  and  popular  with  all  classes,  was  in  a  posi 
tion  where  he  was  expected  to  accomplish  wonders,  without  means 
being  provided  to  effect  anything.  Doing  the  best  under  the  circum 
stances,  writing  bold,  urgent  letters  to  the  Assembly  and  the  Gov 
ernor,  planning  radical  remedies,  and  putting  up  with  temporary  ex 
pedients,  responsible  for  everything,  and  supported  in  nothing, Wash 
ington  appears  at  this  time  in  an  attitude  which  was  typical  of  almost 
his  whole  military  career.  But  while  Washington  was  thus  contend 
ing  with  difficulties,  the  war  was  running  its  course.  Frenchmen  and 
Indians  were  ravaging  the  frontier,  the  inhabitants  were  massacred, 
and  the  back  settlements  broken  up.  The  whole  country  was  in 
alarm  and  constantly  pillaged,  yet  nothing  was  done.  There 
is  a  famous  passage  in  one  of  Washington's  letters  which 
brings  all  this  suffering  and  wretchedness  vividly  before  us :  "  The 
supplicating  tears  of  the  women,"  he  writes  to  Dinwiddie,  "and  mov 
ing  petitions  of  the  men,  melt  me  into  such  deadly  sorrow,  that  I 
solemnly  declare,  if  I  know  my  own  mind,  I  could  offer  myself  a 
willing  sacrifice  to  the  butchering  enemy,  provided  that  would  con 
tribute  to  the  people's  ease."  There  are  here  revealed  not  only  the 
miseries  of  the  country  and  the  trials  of  Washington's  situation,  but 
that  keen  sense  of  responsibility  and  public  duty  in  which  no  other 
man  ever  equalled  him.  The  pathos  of  the  sentence  comes  from 
the  passionate  force  of  that  strong  reserved  nature,  moved  at  last  to 
open  expression.  For  the  moment  it  was  all  in  vain.  Lord  Loudon 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  35 

came  and  went  as  commander -in -chief,  left  his  name  to  a  Virgin 
ian  county  —  which  was  all  the  province  that  he  never  visited,  ob 
tained  from  him  as  Governor  and  successor  to  Dinwiddie — and  did 
nothing.     The  weary   struggle  dragged  on,  and  even  Washington, 
worn   out  with  vexation   and  fatigue,  retired  for  a  time.      But  at 
last  Mr.  Pitt  came  to  the  head  of  affairs  in  England,  and  all 
was  altered.     Francis  Fauquier,  ruined  at  the  gaming-table, 
but  fascinating  and  high-bred,  a  gentleman  and  scholar,  a  charm 
ing  companion  and  a  popular  Governor,  came  to  rule  over  Virginia ; 
but  this  was  the  least  and  most  unimportant  of  the  changes.     Under 
Mr.  Pitt  men  came  to  America  to  serve  England ;  armies  and  fleets 
were  sent,  and  money  was  poured  out  in  all  directions.     All  were  im 
bued  with  the  spirit  of  the  great  commoner.      General  Forbes,  who 
was  in  command  in  Virginia,  was  able  to  gather  a  numerous  and  ex 
cellent  army.     Slowly  and  carefully,  rather  stupidly  perhaps,  Forbes 
pushed  on  for  Fort  Du  Quesne,  not  at  all  in  the  way  in  which  Colo 
nel  Washington,  who  was  in  command  of  the  advance,  desired.     The 
capital  mistakes  of  Braddock,  however,  were  not  repeated,  although 
the  French  surprised  and  nearly  destroyed  a  large  detachment  sent 
forward  under  Grant.    But  this  was  not  enough  to  check  the  English. 
The  French  stronghold,  owing  largely  to  the  efforts  of  Mr.  Pitt  and 
the  British  navy,  was  doomed,  and  the  brave  garrison,  deserting  their 
hopeless  post,  permitted  Forbes  to  march  in  unmolested,  and  name 
his  conquest  Fort  Pitt.     This  practically  closed  the  war.so  far 
as  Virginia  was  concerned,  and  Colonel  Washington  was  able 
to  withdraw  to  Mount  Vernon,  and  remain  there  with  the  wife  he  had 
just  married.     In  the  North  the  war  went  on  for  two  years 
longer.     Wolfe  took  Quebec  the  first  summer,  and  the  next 
saw  Montreal  and  Canada  in  the  hands  of  the  British.     Two 
years  now  passed  by.    Pitt  was  driven  from  office,  and  peace  was 
concluded  under  the  auspices  of  Bute,  while  Frederick  of  Prussia  soon 
followed  England's  example.     The  map  of  Europe  was  not  changed, 
but  the  destiny  of  America  was  determined.     England  retained  Can 
ada,  the  Floridas,  and  the  Great  West   as   far  as  the  Mississippi. 
Henceforth  the  English  race  was  to  rule  unquestioned  upon 
the  North  American  continent.     But  these  vast  changes  were 
only  preliminary  to  still  greater  ones.     The  French  war  had  cleared 
the  way  for  the  momentous  questions  involved  in  the  future  relations 
of  the  English  colonies  with  the  mother  country.     The  thirteen  prov 
inces  were  disclosed  to  the  eyes  of  England  in  all  their  immense  and 


36  HItiTORY  OF  THE 

hitherto  unnoticed  value.  Territories  so  vast,  a  people  so  numerous, 
so  wealthy,  and  so  enterprising,  could  no  longer  be  neglected.  The 
old,  slow,  let-alone  policy  of  Walpole  was  clearly  insufficient,  and 
must  be  abandoned.  These  were  the  thoughts  which  filled  the  minds 
of  English  statesmen  when  the  clouds  of  war  which  had  so  long  en 
veloped  the  world  rolled  slowly  away.  But  if  the  lessons  of  the  war 
were  just,  their  practical  application  became  fatal  in  the  hands  of  the 
men  to  whom  it  was  committed. 

The  teaching  of  the  war,  so  much  considered  in  England,  was  not 
lost  upon  the  colonies.  With  the  close  of  the  French  war  the  whole 
current  of  American  history  changes.  Not  only  did  that  struggle 
bring  the  colonies  together  in  a  common  cause,  but  it  destroyed  the 
power  of  France  in  America.  Fear  of  France  no  longer  bound  the 
colonies  to  the  parent  State.  Their  loyalty  in  the  future  depended 
on  the  policy  of  England  alone. 

For  Virginia  these  years  had  been  especially  useful.  She  had  learned 
that  the  King's  troops  were  not  invincible ;  she  had  tested  her  own 
resources,  and  she  had  proved  the  strength  and  independence  of  her 
Assembly.  While  Washington  was  neglected  on  the  frontier,  and 
even  before  Dinwiddie  and  the  Assembly  quarrelled,  the  Governor 
had  discovered  that  without  great  assistance  from  England  he  was 
sure  to  be  worsted  in  every  -encounter.  Whatever  right  there  was  in 
the  questions  then  at  issue  was  probably  with  Dinwiddie,  who  had  to 
carry  on  a  defensive  war ;  but  none  the  less  did  the  Assembly  put 
him  down  and  assert  their  own  independence.  As  the  war  drifted 
away  from  her  borders,  Virginia,  under  the  genial  rule  of  Fauquier, 
took  breath  after  her  exertions  and  hailed  with  delight  the  peace 
which  marked  the  triumphs  of  England.  But  the  lull  was  only  mo 
mentary.  Now  that  the  terrible  fear  which  hung  over  the  West 
ern  border  was  removed,  men  began  to  watch  the  progress  of  their 
domestic  affairs  more  closely,  and  to  scrutinize  most  narrowly  every 
incident  in  their  relations  with  the  mother  country.  The  past  had 
shown  that  things  never  went  smoothly  unless  the  policy  of  non 
intervention,  except  in  a  beneficent  manner,  was  adhered  to  by  Eng 
land.  Virginians  were  thoroughly  loyal,  but  they  liked  to  manage 
their  own  affairs  in  their  own  way ;  and  now  that  they  began  to  be 
conscious  of  their  strength,  and  to  know  their  own  importance,  they 
were  very  quick  to  detect  any  meddling,  and  equally  ready  to  resent  it. 
Interference  on  the  part  of  England  was  certain,  sooner  or  later,  espe 
cially  when  ministers  had  come  to  the  conclusion  that  America  was 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  37 

not  governed  enough,  and  only  the  most  delicate  and  judicious  treatr 
ment  could  avert  the  worst  results.  The  rejoicings  which  greeted  the 
return  of  peace  had  not  died  away  when  the  inevitable  collision  came. 
This  first  conflict  was  brief  and  comparatively  unimportant ;  but  it 
acquires  an  immense  significance  as  an  exponent  of  the  new  spirit 
which  was  abroad,  and  was  the  forerunner  of  revolution. 

In  1755  the  Assembly  passed,  under  the  pressure  of  war  and  gen 
eral  distress,  a  relief  act  providing  that  for  the  next  ten  months  all 
debts  due  in  tobacco  (the  standard  of  value  in  the  colony)  might  be 
paid  either  in  kind  or  in  money,  at  the  rate  of  twopence  per  pound  of 
tobacco.  The  year  was  one  of  great  scarcity,  and  tobacco  rose  to 
sixpence  per  pound.  The  result  of  the  act,  therefore,  was  a  virtual 
repudiation  of  about  sixty-six  per  cent,  of  all  existing  debts ;  and  as  the 
State  and  the  great  mass  of  the  people  were  debtors,  the  act  seems  to 
have  met  with  general  acceptance,  and  to  have  encountered  but  little 
opposition.  So  satisfactory,  indeed,  did  the  act  prove  to  the  ma 
jority  of  the  voters,  that  in  1758,  in  anticipation  of  another  short 
crop  of  tobacco,  another  relief  act,  determining  anew  the  rate  for  to 
bacco  in  the  payment  of  all  debts,  was  passed.  There  was  one  class 
in  the  community  whose  salary  was  fixed  by  law  at  16,000  pounds 
of  tobacco,  and  upon  whom  this  forced  reduction  of  debts  seemed 
therefore  to  weigh  with  peculiar  severity.  This  was  the  clergy.  De 
riving  some  benefit,  probably,  from  the  operation  of  the  first  act,  the 
ministers  had  contented  themselves  with  petitioning  the  Assembly 
for  a  more  liberal  maintenance;  but  the  second  act  fell  upon  them 
with  full  force,  and  although  there  was  no  apparent  intention  of  es 
pecially  abridging  their  income,  they  now  broke  out  into  violent  op 
position.  A  bitter  controversy  ensued  which  drew  down  the  utmost 
popular  odium  upon  the  ministers.  At  last  the  clergy  appealed  to 
the  King  in  Council,  and  Sherlock,  the  Bishop  of  London,  denounced 
the  act  as  hostile  to  the  prerogative,  and  tending  to  withdraw  the  alle 
giance  of  the  people  from  the  Crown.  On  the  other  side,  Colonel 
Bland  defended  the  act  as  justified  by  its  most  salutary  end,  the  pres 
ervation  of  the  people.  This  he  boldly  put  forward  as  the  highest  duty, 
and  one  which  took  precedence  of  every  other,  and  rendered  treason  im 
possible.  The  King,  however,  denounced  the  act  as  a  usurpation,  and 
declared  it  null  and  void.  The  clergy  thereupon  brought  suits  to  re 
cover  the  unpaid  salary,  and  the  Court  of  Hanover  County,  in  a  test  case, 
decided  the  point  of  law  in  favor  of  the  plaintiff,  the  Rev.  James  Mau- 
ry,  holding  that  the  royal  disapprobation  made  the  act  void  ab  initio. 


38  HISTORY  OF  THE 

They  ordered  that  the  plaintiff  should  go  before  a  jury  to  determine 
the  amount  of  damages,  which,  after  their  decision,  appeared  a  juere- 
ly  formal  matter.  The  counsel  for  the  defendants,  who  were  the  col 
lectors  of  the  county,  retired  from  the  case.  It  was,  indeed,  a  forlorn- 
hope,  and  the  defendants  were  obliged  to  employ  a  briefless  young 
lawyer  who,  after  six  months'  study,  had  just  been  admitted  to  the  Bar. 
But  this  young  lawyer  was  Patrick  Henry,  and  the  argument  he  was 
about  to  make  was  the  second  eloquent  appeal,  as  that  of  Otis  on  the 
writs  of  assistance  had  been  the  first,  to  the  independence  of  America 
from  the  domination  of  the  English  Crown.  The  son  of  respectable 
parents,  and  connected  with  the  aristocracy  of  Virginia,  Henry  was 
utterly  unknown,  except  to  his  immediate  circle,  and  even  there  very 
unfavorably.  As  he  stood  before  the  magistrates  in  the  little  Vir 
ginia  court-house  in  November,  1763,  to  defend  a  desperate  cause, 
the  gentlemen  on  the  bench  could  hardly  have  regarded  him  with 
partial  eyes.  Uncouth  in  form  and  rugged  in  feature,  as  he  stum 
bled  over  the  first  sentences  of  his  speech,  his  father's  friends  and 
neighbors,  who  filled  the  court-room,  probably  expected  that  one  more 
failure  was  to  be  added  to  the  record  of  an  unsuccessful  career.  Al 
though  well-born,  Henry  appeared  to  those  about  him  as  the  boy  who 
had  early  left  school  but  half-educated,  to  devote  himself  to  fishing 
and  hunting,  to  indolent  hours  of  dreaming  in  the  woods  and  by  the 
banks  of  streams,  and  to  the  violin  and  the  dances  of  the  Virginian 
plantation.  His  serious  occupations  had  been  even  worse  than  his 
idle  amusements.  An  unsuccessful  farmer,  a  broken  tradesman,  a. 
tavern-keeper,  earning  a  precarious  living,  and  now  a  hastily  prepared 
lawyer  who  had  barely  gained  admission  to  the  Bar,  this  thriftless  fel 
low  and  jolly  companion  seemed  hardly  likely  to  sustain  a  failing 
cause  before  all  the  respectability  of  his  native  county. 

But  the  hour  had  come  and  the  man.  As  Henry  broke  through 
the  trammels  of  hesitation  and  embarrassment  the  words  began  to 
come,  the  deep -set  gray  eyes  began  to  flash,  and  the  great  orator 
stood  forth  before  the  astonished  eyos  of  the  planters,  farmers,  and 
clergymen  who  had  gathered  in  the  Hanover  Court-house.  Of  all 
that  brilliant  rhetoric  and  savage  invective  not  a  word  remains,  but 
the  theme  which  drew  it  out  is  as  distinct  in  every  contemporary 
record  as  the  person  of  the  orator  himself.  Henry  brushed  aside  all 
legal  points — he  knew  little  of  them,  and  cared  less ;  and,  moreover, 
the  law  was  utterly  against  him.  With  the  intuitive  perception  of 
the  great  advocate,  he  seized  the  one  point  on  which  he  knew  he  could 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  39 

move  his  countrymen.  He  left  the  narrow  field  of  the  law  for  the 
broad  ground  of  political  principle.  He  did  not  strive  to  convince 
men's  reason,  but  he  appealed  to  their  innate  convictions,  their  pas 
sions,  their  emotions.  He  declared  that  a  king  who  annulled  good 
laws  dissolved  his  compact  with  the  people,  and  was  a  tyrant ;  that, 
unless  the  jury  were  disposed  to  rivet  the  chains  of  bondage,  they  would 
sustain  the  authority  of  the  representatives  of  the  people.  Henry's 
eloquence  was  irresistible,  his  arguments  appealed  to  the  heart  of  ev 
ery  man  present,  the  jury  awarded  merely  nominal  damages,  and  the 
orator  was  borne  from  the  court-house  upon  the  shoulders  of  his  ex 
cited  auditors.  Henry  became  from  that  moment  a  great  popular 
leader ;  but  the  importance  of  the  event  does  not  lie  in  the  fact  that 
a  famous  orator  then  made  his  first  success  or  won  a  hopeless  case. 
"The  Parson's  Cause"  deserves  lasting  remembrance,  because  Henry 
then  gave  utterance  to  the  latent  feeling  of  the  community.  He 
owed  much  of  his  greatness  to  being  the  first  in  Virginia,  and  the 
second  in  America,  to  express  in  words  what  every  one  was  thinking 
more  or  less  indistinctly.  Henry's  whole  speech  resolves  itself  into 
one  proposition :  "  The  Colony  of  Virginia  must  manage  her  own  af 
fairs  in  her  own  way,  and  she  cannot  brook  outside  interference." 
Henry's  voice  was  the  voice  of  the  people,  and  its  warning  note 
sounds  clearly  enough  now  across  the  chasm  of  a  century.  But  in 
1763  it  was  lost  in  a  multitude  of  confused  ephemeral  noises,  and 
passed  by  unheard.  Perhaps  England,  if  she  had  heard,  would  not 
have  stopped  to  listen  and  to  understand ;  but  the  next  time  he  spoke 
she  heard  him,  and  attended,  although  she  failed  to  learn  the  great 
truths  of  which  he  was  the  exponent.  Other  signs,  however,  were 
not  wanting,  and  they  all  pointed  in  the  same  direction.  Some  were 
of  little  importance ;  others,  as,  for  example,  the  appointment  of  a 
Bishop,  and  the  enforcement  of  the  laws  of  trade,  excited  the  bit 
terest  resistance.  But  all  alike  announced  in  unmistakable  language 
that  Englishmen  in  America  were  too  powerful  and  too  many  not  to 
govern  themselves  freely  through  their  own  representatives.  Unfort 
unately  the  theory  that  America  was  not  enough  governed,  and  that 
she  did  not  contribute  enough  to  the  expenses  of  the  mother  country, 
had  taken  deep  root  in  the  minds  of  English  statesmen.  Pitt,  with 
his  high  and  generous  policy  and  enlarged  views,  had  gone  from  of 
fice,  and  his  successors  were  just  clever  enough  to  see  the  defects  in 
the  colonial  system  without  having  the  wisdom  to  grasp  all  the  con 
ditions  of  the  case  and  apply  the  proper  remedies.  The  chief  objects 


40  HISTORY  OF  THE 

of  the  new  ministers  were  to  maintain  a  standing  army,  to  enforce 
the  navigation  laws,  and  to  lay  taxes  upon  the  colonists  in  order  to 
exact  their  proper  contribution  to  the  financial  burdens  of  the  Em 
pire.  The  execution  of  these  plans  by  means  of  the  Stamp  Act  and 
revenue  laws  led  to  the  first  Congress,  to  the  union  of  the  colonies, 
to  resistance  to  England,  and  finally  to  war.  Virginia  was  the  first 
to  sound  the  alarm  against  the  Stamp  Act  in  the  famous  resolutions 
of  May,  1765,  introduced  by  Henry  and  advocated  by  him  in  the 
celebrated  speech  which  compared  George  III.  to  Caesar  and  Charles  I. 
Fauquier's  management  prevented  the  choice  of  delegates,  and  Vir 
ginia  was  not  represented  at  the  Congress  in  New  York,  but  she 
warmly  supported  its  action,  and  sent  to  England  a  declaration  of 
similar  principles.  With  the  Congress  of  1765,  and  the  measures 
which  led  to  and  succeeded  it,  the  thirteen  provinces  began  to  live  a 
national  life,  and  the  history  of  Virginia  unites  with  the  great  current 
of  the  history  of  the  United  States. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  41 


CHAPTEE   II. 

VIRGINIA  IN  1765. 

WITHOUT  a  knowledge  of  her  social,  economical,  and  political  con 
dition,  the  great  part  played  by  Virginia  in  the  history  of  the  United 
States  is  almost  unintelligible.  The  always  difficult  task  of  recon 
structing  on  paper  a  past  society  is  enhanced  in  the  case  of  Virginia 
by  the  almost  total  want  of  contemporary  literature;  and  this  want  is 
not  supplied  by  private  correspondence,  for  if  intelligent  letters  or  jour 
nals  were  written,  they  have  not  come  down  to  us.  In  the  middle  of 
the  eighteenth  century  Virginian  society  was  not  much  given  to  liter 
ary  pursuits  of  any  sort;  and  when  the  correspondence  of  the  great 
leaders  of  the  Revolution  begins,  the  stern  interests  of  war  and  politics 
drove  from  men's  minds  and  from  their  letters  the  simple  details  of 
e very-day  life.  To  summon  up  the  past  in  Virginia,  we  must  turn  to 
the  dry  narratives  of  travellers,  the  gossiping  histories  of  families  and 
churches,  and  the  yellow  pages  of  old  newspapers. 

Virginia  has  altered  as  little  probably  as  any  State  in  the  Union ; 
but  in  this  country  of  rapid  changes,  and  after  a  century  of  hur 
ried  progress  and  unexampled  development,  closing  with  a  civil  war 
which  utterly  wrecked  the  social  system  of  the  South,  it  may  be  safely 
said  that  nothing  now  remains  of  the  ancient  Dominion  of  the  year 
1765.  The  great  physical  features  of  the  country  are  of  course  the 
same.  There  are  still  the  rich  soil,  the  genial  climate,  the  noble  rivers, 
the  safe  and  capacious  harbors,  which  greeted  the  eyes  of  John  Smith 
and  his  companions.  The  face  of  the  country,  moreover,  is  but  little 
changed  since  the  middle  of  the  last  century.  More  territory  has 
been  cleared  and  utilized,  but  great  tracts  of  wild  land  still  remain 
untouched.  Where  a  hundred  years  ago  there  were  a  few  scattered 
villages,  there  are  now  some  respectable  towns ;  but  no  great  cities, 
in  obedience  to  the  laws  of  modern  civilization,  have  sprung  up  upon 
Virginian  soil.  Yet  the  whole  fabric  of  society  has  been  radically 


42  HISTORY  OF  THE 

altered.  Even  in  1822,  long  before  the  far-reaching  changes  effected 
by  the  extinction  of  slavery,  John  Randolph  of  Roanoke  could  say 
with  truth:  " Traces  of  the  same  manners  could  be  found  some  years 
subsequent  to  the  adoption  of  the  Federal  Constitution — say  to  the 
end  of  the  century.  At  this  time  not  a  vestige  remains.  We  are  a 
new  people." 

To  draw  an  accurate  picture  of  the  vanished  society  lamented  by 
Randolph,  it  is  first  necessary  to  ascertain  the  numbers  of  the  people. 
Accurate  government  statistics  had  then  no  existence,  and  we  are 
forced  to  rely  upon  the  estimates  of  individuals.  The  figures  gener 
ally  accepted,  therefore,  are  at  best  only  approximately  true.  For  the 
year  1650  a  contemporary  tract  gives  fifteen  thousand  whites  and 
three  hundred  negroes  as  the  population  of  Virginia.  It  is  worth 
while  to  pause  a  moment  here  in  order  to  get  a  general  notion  of 
Virginia  in  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century,  for  we  are  thus  en 
abled  to  see  the  germs  of  the  subsequent  development.  From  the 
scanty  material  which  the  time  affords,  a  rough  sketch  can  be  made 
of  the  first  colony  planted  by  Englishmen  in  America  fifty  years 
after  its  foundation.  The  race  had  then  finally  taken  root  in  its  new 
home,  and  the  lines  of  social  and  political  development  were  already 
marked  out.  The  results  seem  at  first  sight  small,  but  they  represent 
stability  of  existence,  the  first  great  prize  wrung  from  the  wilderness. 
From  the  tract  just  referred  to,  other  statistics  than  those  of  popula 
tion  may  be  gathered.  Imported  cattle,  as  well  as  horses,  swine,  goats, 
and  fowls,  had  thriven  in  Virginia.  The  flocks  and  herds,  sure  signs 
of  permanency  and  well-being,  had  increased  and  multiplied,  and  be 
come  a  source  of  wealth  to  their  owners.  Agriculture  had  taken  a 
firm  hold,  and  was  the  main  support  of  the  people.  Tobacco,  the 
source  of  Virginian  wealth,  was  then  as  always  the  great  staple ;  but 
the  more  familiar  products  of  English  soil  were  not  lacking.  Wheat 
and  corn  were  raised  in  sufficient  quantities  to  supply  the  plantations. 
Hops  were  successfully  cultivated,  and  good  beer  brewed,  to  the  satis 
faction,  doubtless,  of  the  colonists,  who  had  not  left  their  tastes  and 
habits  behind  them.  Vines  were  indigenous,  and  grapes  plentiful, 
while  imported  fruit-trees  took  so  kindly  to  the  new  soil  that  fine 
orchards  had  already  become  a  part  of  every  plantation..  Trade  had 
grown  up  with  the  other  colonies  and  the  West  India  Islands,  as  well 
as  with  the  mother  country.  Small  vessels  for  the  coasting  trade  and 
for  fishing  had  been  built,  and  pitch,  potashes,  furs,  and  lumber  were 
exported  in  considerable  quantities.  Other  industries  showed  but 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  43 

feeble  signs  of  life.     Efforts  had  been  made  to  establish  iron-works 
and  introduce  silk  culture,  but  with  little  success. 

Colonel  Norwood,  a  Royalist  refugee,  who  was  wrecked  on  the 
American  coast,  left  a  journal  recounting  his  adventures,  and  among 
other  incidents  his  first  reception  by  a  Virginia  farmer.  From  his 
brief  account  it  may  be  gathered  that  the  circumstances  of  this  plant 
er,  although  rough  and  simple,  were  not  uncomfortable.  The  table 
to  which  the  shipwrecked  traveller  was  welcomed  seems  to  have  been 
plentifully  supplied  with  the  fine  game  of  the  country  and  the  whole 
some  products  of  the  plantation.  The  host  was  dressed  in  coarse, 
strong  homespun,  and  would  seem  to  have  been  contented.  This  was 
probably  the  condition  of  most  of  the  planters  at  that  period.  They 
had  comfortable  houses  of  wood  or  brick  in  the  midst  of  large  es 
tates,  which  yielded  all  crops  in  profusion.  They  lived  in  compara 
tive  solitude,  scattered  along  the  banks  of  rivers  and  isolated  in  the 
great  forests,  holding  little  intercourse  with  each  other  or  with  the 
outside  world.  Almost  the  only  highways  were  the  great  natural 
watercourses ;  and  the  annual  ship  from  England,  laden  with  goods 
to  pay  for  tobacco,  was  the  great  event  in  their  lives.  Except  for  the 
little  village  of  Jamestown,  there  was  nothing  even  resembling  a  town. 
Alone  on  the  edge  of  the  ocean,  it  seemed  as  if  the  wilderness  behind 
must,  by  the  sheer  force  of  its  vast  desolation,  drive  the  colonists  into 
the  sea.  Strange  stories  were  current  of  marvellous  and  abnormal 
races  of  men  beyond  the  mountains,  which  were  supposed  to  be  wash 
ed  on  the  other  side  by  the  waves  of  the  Indian  Ocean.1  Nothing 
but  the  sturdy  and  unimaginative  nature  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race 
could  have  enabled  the  Virginians  to  support  their  solitary  life  in  the 
seventeenth  century. 

Their  political  instincts  were  as  keen  as  in  the  mother  country, 
whose  customs  and  laws  they  had  brought  with  them.  Except  for 
the  brief  period  of  the  Protectorate,  the  suffrage  was  carefully  limit 
ed,  and  class  distinctions  were  always  maintained.  The  Established 
Church  was  supreme,  and  dissent  met  with  harsh  and  intolerant  treat 
ment.  The  planters  exercised  their  political  faculties  as  sharply  in 
the  little  Assembly  at  Jamestown  as  did  their  English  cousins  in  Lon 
don.  Slavery  was  as  yet  trifling  in  its  influence ;  but  the  convicts 
and  indented  servants  formed  a  servile  class,  and  helped  forward  the 
aristocratic  system  which  had  been  founded.  The  professions  of  law 

1  Discoveries  of  John  Lederer,  16*71. 


44  BISTORT  OF  THE 

and  medicine  hardly  had  an  existence,  and  merchants,  as  such,  were 
unknown.  There  were  only  two  classes — landlords  and  servants.  Nei 
ther  arts  nor  letters  flourished.  Every  man  taught  his  children  accord 
ing  to  his  ability,  and  the  Royalist  Governor  Berkeley  thanked  God 
that  there  were  no  free  schools.1  The  Virginians  were  Royalist  in 
their  sympathies,  and  firm  supporters  of  Church  and  State.  In  the 
rude  outlines  of  the  seventeenth  century  can  be  seen  all  the  great 
forces  which  attained  a  vigorous  life  and  full  development  in  the 
eighteenth.  The  hard  life,  the  isolation,  the  great  estates,  and  the 
servile  class,  added  to  the  inborn  conservatism  of  the  race,  were  mould 
ing  an  aristocratic  system  as  distinct  and  powerful  as  that  which  had 
been  left  behind. 

In  1671  the  population,  according  to  Berkeley,2  had  risen  to  forty 
thousand  souls,  two  thousand  of  whom  were  negroes.  This  was  prob 
ably  a  large  estimate ;  but  the  troubles  toward  the  end  of  the  century 
and  dangers  from  the  Indians  checked  the  growth  of  the  colony,  which 
does  not  seem  to  have  numbered  much  more  than  forty  thousand  in 
habitants  in  1700.  The  period  of  quiet  which  then  ensued,  and  the 
vigorous  Indian  policy  of  Spotswood,  gave  repose,  while  the  general 
tranquillity  of  all  the  British  dominions  after  the  accession  of  the  House 
of  Brunswick  contributed  to  the  same  result.  In  the  first  fifty  years 
of  the  eighteenth  century  the  white  population  increased  from  less 
than  sixty  to  more  than  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand,  and  the  hand 
ful  of  negro  slaves  had  grown  to  such  a  point  that  it  more  than  equal 
led  the  whites  in  numbers,  and  raised  the  total  population  to  over  half 
a  million.8 

It  is  an  easier  matter  to  determine  with  accuracy  the  Virginian  rev 
enues  and  taxes  and  their  sources  than  to  estimate  the  population. 
Campbell,  relying  on  the  contemporary  account  usually  attributed  to 
Lord  Culpepper,  enumerates  four  sources  of  revenue  at  the  close  of 
the  seventeenth  century.  First  come  the  quit -rents,  amounting  to 
about  eight  hundred  pounds  per  annum,  and  paid  to  the  King ;  sec 
ond,  the  export  duty  of  two  shillings  per  hogshead  on  tobacco,  and  the 
port  duties  of  fifteen  pence  per  ton  on  vessels  arriving,  averaging  three 
thousand  pounds  a  year;  third,  a  duty  of  one  penny  in  the  pound 
on  all  tobacco  exported  to  the  other  colonies,  amounting  to  one  hun 
dred  pounds  a  year,  and  paid  to  William  and  Mary  College,  under  the 

1  Foote's  Sketches  of  Virginia,  ii.,  1671. 

8  Ibid.,  i.,  10.  s  j  F  v  Smyth's  Travels,  i.,  72. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  45 

grant  of  1692  ;  fourth,  any  money-duty  raised  by  the  Assembly.  There 
were  also  three  levies :  the  parish  levy,  assessed  by  the  vestries ;  the 
county  levy,  assessed  by  the  justices  of  the  peace ;  and  the  public  levy, 
assessed  by  the  Assembly.  All  these  three  levies  were  paid  in  tobac 
co,  collected  by  the  sheriff,  assessed  on  the  whole  number  of  persons 
in  the  parish,  county,  or  colony,  and  divided  by  the  number  of  titha- 
bles.  The  tax  so  collected  amounted  to  about  one  hundred  pounds 
of  tobacco  for  each  tithable  person,  and  yielded  between  eight  and 
nine  thousand  pounds  sterling  annually.  This  system  was  continued 
with  little  change,  except  natural  increase,  until  the  French  war.  The 
Governors  and  the  Assembly  were  in  the  habit  of  wrangling  on  the 
question  of  taxes ;  but  all  power  in  the  matter  rested  with  the  bur 
gesses,  and,  until  the  royal  government  interfered,  they  easily  mas 
tered  their  Governors.  This  system  of  taxation  was  of  the  simplest 
and  most  direct  kind,  levied  principally  upon  real  estate  and  negroes.1 
Its  moderation  alone  made  it  tolerable,  and  the  burdens  created  by 
the  French  war  soon  caused  bitter  complaints  of  its  inequality  and  in 
justice.2  In  that  great  conflict  a  debt  of  four  hundred  thousand 
pounds  was  contracted,  and  heavy  taxes  were  laid  to  sink  it,  while  gold 
and  silver  were  banished  from  circulation  and  replaced  by  a  depre 
ciated  paper  currency.  The  hardships  produced  by  this  change  in  the 
standard  were  so  severe  that  a  law  to  fix  the  rate  of  exchange  was 
passed.3 

Despite  the  defective  methods  of  taxation,  however,  the  colony 
rapidly  recovered  from  its  financial  difficulties,  which  were  caused 
solely  by  the  exigencies  of  war.  There  were  no  great  sources  of 
expenditure  in  time  of  peace,  and  the  most  costly  public  luxuries,  an 
army  and  a  navy,  were  wholly  wanting.  The  only  defenders  of  the 
country  were  the  militia,  supposed  to  include  every  able-bodied  free 
man  between  the  ages  of  sixteen  and  sixty.4  The  organization  of  this 
militia,  however,  was  extremely  loose  and  imperfect.6  They  were 
called  out  in  time  of  war  by  the  Governor  and  Assembly,  who  also 
had  power  to  raise  colonial  troops.  Washington's  difficulties,  when 
in  command  during  the  French  war,  give  a  startling  picture  of  the 
wretched  military  arrangements  of  the  province.  The  commander 

1  White  women  working  in  fields  were  also  held  to  be  tithable,  Beverly,  p.  224  ; 
and  Foote,  ii.,  208.  As  to  taxation  generally,  Burke,  ii.,  137;  Rochefoucauld,  ii., 
47;  Hening,  1644,  1645,  1657, 1769. 

a  Burnaby's  Travels,  p.  39.  s  Ibid.,  pp.  39,  40. 

4  Beverly,  p.  224.  •  Smyth,  ii.,  160. 


46  HISTORY  OF  THE 

had  no  voice  in  the  choice  of  officers,  there  was  no  proper  system 
of  military  regulations,  and  the  pay  was  irregular  and  uncertain. 
Even  when  these  faults  had  been  remedied,  Washington  found  him 
self  without  any  martial  code  by  which  he  could  check  insubordina 
tion,  desertion,  or  the  natural  perverseness  of  his  raw  levies.  The 
militia  system,  as  then  constituted,  was  thoroughly  insufficient  except 
in  peace.  Men  were  to  be  called  out  to  repel  invasion  ;  but  there  were 
no  powers  to  effect  this,  or  to  control  them  when  in  actual  service. 
There  was,  besides,  the  annoying  question  of  rank.  Every  officer  in 
the  royal  army  claimed  to  outrank  every  provincial  officer,  and  this 
led  to  continual  jealousies  and  difficulties.  In  one  case  Washington 
refused  to  serve ;  in  another,  a  man  who  had  in  the  last  war  held  an 
English  commission  of  captain,  refused  to  obey  Washington,  then  in 
command  of  all  the  Virginian  troops.  The  frontiersmen,  of  course, 
made  good  soldiers,  and  the  young  Virginians  of  good  family  were 
just  the  stuff  to  make  dashing  and  gallant  officers ;  but  the  mass  of 
the  people,  though  brave  and  ready  to  fight,  could  not  at  once  bear 
the  severe  strain  of  a  prolonged  and  exhausting  war.  Moreover,  the 
majority  of  Virginians  at  the  time  of  the  French  war  had  never  seen 
or  known  any  fighting;  for  Bacon's  rebellion  and  the  great  wars 
with  the  savages  were  then  little  more  than  traditions. 

With  the  other  branch  of  public  defence  it  was  even  worse.  There 
was,  of  course,  no  navy  whatever,  nor  were  there  even  merchant-ships 
to  be  turned  into  privateers.  The  Virginians  were  in  no  respect  a 
seafaring  race,  and  did  not  even  furnish  material  to  man  a  possible 
navy  in  the  future.  Other  public  expenses  were  small.  The  Govern 
or's  salary,  charged  on  the  export  duties,  was  twelve  hundred  pounds 
for  the  nominal,  and  seventeen  hundred  for  the  real  Governor.  Three 
hundred  and  fifty  pounds  were  distributed  among  the  councillors. 
The  other  expenses  for  clerks,  courts,  etc.,  were  all  trifling.  Salaries 
were  small,  but  the  income  in  money  of  even  the  richest  Virginians 
was  not  large.  So  much  was  afforded  by  a  great  plantation  and  nu 
merous  slaves  that  comparatively  little  ready  money  served  to  procure 
every  luxury ;  yet,  if  a  small  sum  had  to  be  suddenly  provided,  the 
wealthiest  were  often  obliged  to  seriously  burden  their  estates.  These 
circumstances  gave  to  the  offices  the  rare  attraction  of  yielding  a 
sure  income  in  cash.  The  government  was  upon  the  familiar  British 
model  of  King  and  Parliament.  The  Governor  represented  the  Crown, 
and  was  a  most  important  and  very  powerful  personage.  He  was  not 
only  the  executive  officer,  the  commander  of  the  militia,  and  the  ad- 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  47 

miral  of  the  navy,  but  he  was  also  lord  chancellor,  chief-justice,  and 
practically  the  bishop  of  the  province,  and  the  dispenser  of  pardons, 
except  in  capital  cases.  He  possessed  the  veto  power  as  to  all  legis 
lation,  and  could  convoke,  prorogue,  and  dissolve  the  Assembly.  He 
was  nominally  under  the  control  of  his  Council ;  but  the  councillors 
were  really  his  creatures,  appointed  by  him,  and  liable  to  suspension 
at  his  hands.  His  patronage  was  another  element  of  strength.  All 
offices,  except  those  of  Treasurer  and  Speaker  of  the  House,  and  even 
including  the  clerks  of  the  Assembly,  were  in  his  gift.  He  appointed 
also  the  sheriffs  and  coroners,  and  through  the  former  often  exerted 
a  decisive  influence  upon  the  elections.  His  power  in  the  House  of 
burgesses  itself  was  very  great ;  and  he  added  largely  to  his  salary,  as 
well  as  to  his  political  weight,  by  farming  the  quit -rents,  disposing 
of  unpatented  lands,  and  profiting  by  the  exchange  of  public  money. 
This  matter  of  fees,  especially  in  regard  to  land,  was  a  fruitful  cause 
of  contention  with  the  Assembly,  as  well  as  a  valuable  source  of  in 
come  to  the  Governor.1 

The  Council  came  in  for  a  goodly  share  of  the  spoils  of  the  Execu 
tive  department,  and  a  seat  in  this  body  was  much  sought  after  by 
the  leading  men  of  the  colony.  In  1680  they  had  ceased  to  sit  with 
the  burgesses,  and  had  become  an  upper  house ;'  and  in  process  of 
time  they  obtained  an  almost  equal  share  of  legislative  power.  They 
were  twelve  in  number,8  and  by  virtue  of  tiieir  position  as  councillors 
were  exempt  from  taxation,  became  judges,  colonels  of  counties,  naval 
officers  clearing  all  vessels,  collectors  of  the  revenue,  and  farmers  of 
quit-rents.4 

After  Governor  and  Council  had  been  thus  liberally  provided  for, 
there  was  little  left  in  the  way  of  offices  for  the  burgesses.  Under 
the  Commonwealth  (1653)  they  had  successfully  asserted  their  right 
to  elect  their  own  Speaker,6  and  at  the  beginning  of  the  next  centu 
ry  they  wrested  from  Nicholson  the  election  of  the  Treasurer,  thus 
obtaining  complete  control  of  the  finances,  and  supplementing  the 
power  of  laying  taxes,  which  resided  wholly  with  them.6  This  sin 
gle  but  all-sufficient  weapon  armed  them  for  their  conflicts  with  the 

1  This  account  of  the  Governor's  powers  is  drawn  chiefly  from  Hartwell,  Blair, 
and  Chilton's  Present  State  of  Virginia,  1729.  But  see  also  Beverly  and  Burna- 
by,  p.  23. 

8  Jbeverly.  3  Burnaby,  p.  22. 

4  Present  State  of  Virginia,  Hartwell,  Blair,  and  Chilton ;  Hening,  1637. 

*  Burke,  ii.,  95.  «  Burke,  ii.,  145 ;  as  to  Privileges,  Hening,  1657. 


48  HISTORY  OF  THE 

executive,  and  was  the  great  safeguard  of  the  people.  There  were, 
in  the  year  1760,  one  hundred  and  ten  burgesses,  two  from  each 
county,  and  one  from  Jamestown,  Williamsburg,  Norfolk,  and  the 
college  respectively.1  They  received*  one  hundred  and  twenty  pounds 
of  tobacco,  or  about  twelve  shillings  a  day,  and  were  elected  by  the 
freeholders,  who  were  alone  entitled  to  vote.*  No  act  could  become 
law  without  the  assent  of  both  Houses  and  of  the  Governor,  besides 
the  ratification  of  the  King  in  Council.4  Such  was  the  government 
of  Virginia;  English  and  practical,  but  very  far  from  being  sym 
metrical  or  theoretically  perfect. 

Still  further  removed  from  either  symmetry  or  perfection  was 
the  judicial  and  legal  system  which  had  grown  up  during  the  hun 
dred  and  fifty  years  of  the  colony's  existence.  The  machinery  of  the 
law  had  been  constructed  to  meet  definite  wants,  and  had  been 
amended  and  added  to  from  time  to  time,  as  necessity  demanded. 
Provision  for  a  judiciary  followed  closely  the  political  emancipation 
effected  by  the  establishment  of  the  House  of  Burgesses.  Until  the 
year  1621,  all  cases  were  tried  by  the  Governor  and  Council  at  James 
town,  whenever  it  was  convenient.  This  system  was  awkward  and 
unsatisfactory,  and  quarter-sessions  were  established ;  and  in  the  fol 
lowing  year  inferior  courts  were  erected.5  These  two  courts  formed 
the  essence  of  the  judicial  system,  and  continued  with  sundry  addi 
tions  of  jurisdiction  and  changes  in  the  number  of  sessions  practically 
unaltered  until  the  Revolution.  In  the  year  1765  there  were  inferior 
courts,  known  as  county  courts,  sitting  once  a  month  at  the  county 
town,  and  the  general  court,  composed  of  the  Governor  and  Council, 
which  sat  twice  a  year  at  Jamestown  as  a  court  of  oyer  and  ter- 
miner,  and  to  hear  appeals.6  Quarter-sessions  were  also  held  at  the 
county  towns  by  members  of  the  quorum,  and  by  those  of  the  gen 
eral  court  on  the  circuit.7  The  county  courts  were  composed  of 
the  gentlemen  of  the  county,  appointed  as  judges  by  the  Governor. 
They  were  eight  in  number,  and,  as  finally  arranged,  superseded  the 
private  courts  held  by  individual  planters  in  the  early  part  of  the 
seventeenth  century.8  Four  judges  sufficed  to  constitute  a  quorum, 
and  the  bench  of  the  county  court  was  thus  filled  by  country  gentle- 


1  Burnaby,  p.  22.  a  These  figures  are  of  1729. 

3  Beverly.  «  Burnaby,  p.  22. 

6  Burke,  i.,  162  ;  ii.,  31.  8  Burnaby,  p.  21 ;  Smyth's  Travels,  i.,  19, 20. 

7  Hening,  1661-'62.  •  Hening,  ibid. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  49 

men  or  planters,  "  able  and  judicious  persons,"  in  the  language  of  the 
statute,1  but  wholly  innocent  of  any  legal  training.  With  the  natural 
aptitude  of  their  race,  however,  they  administered  substantial  justice 
between  man  and  man,  and  were  respected  and  obeyed  by  their  neigh 
bors  as  the  best,  wisest,  and  wealthiest  men  among  them.  They  had 
criminal  jurisdiction  in  all  but  capital  cases,  and  had  final  jurisdiction 
in  all  civil  causes  involving  less  than  twenty  pounds.2  The  county 
courts  were  also  made  at  an  early  day  courts  of  probate,  although 
administrations  were  later  recorded  in  the  office  of  the  Secretary  of 
the  colony.3  In  cases  involving  more  than  twenty  pounds  there  was 
an  appeal  to  the  general  court,  composed  of  the  Governor  and  five 
members  of  the  Council.  The  judges  of  this,  the  highest  court, 
which  presented  the  odd  combination  of  the  executive  and  judicia 
ry  united  in  one  body,  knew  as  little  law  as  their  brethren  of  the 
lower  jurisdiction ;  but  they  were  a  much  stronger  body.  Their 
court  was  not  commissioned,  but  was  the  growth  of  custom  ;  they 
heard  all  causes  involving  more  than  twenty  pounds,  as  well  as  all 
appeals  from  the  county  courts,  and  held  two  sessions  as  a  court  of 
oyer  and  terminer.  In  addition  to  all  this,  the  general  court  sat  in 
chancery,  the  Governor  being  chancellor,  and  was  a  court  of  admi 
ralty  and  a  spiritual  court.  There  was  an  appeal  from  them  to  the 
King  in  Council  for  all  causes  involving  more  than  five  hundred 
pounds ;  but  such  appeals  were  so  expensive  that  the  decision  of  the 
general  court  was  practically  final.4 

The  right  of  trial  by  jury,  after  some  vicissitudes  in  the  early  days 
of  the  colony,  was  thoroughly  established.  A  jury  was  required  only 
in  criminal  cases,  but  was  given  to  all  demanding  it.6  The  jury  was 
selected  arbitrarily  by  the  sheriff,  without  a  panel.  Six  jurors  were 
required  from  the  vicinage,  and  the  sheriff  summoned  always  the 
"best  gentlemen"  of  the  neighborhood.'  A  late  law  required  that  a 
juror  should  be  a  freeholder,  and  possessed  of  real  and  personal  estate 
of  more  than  one  hundred  pounds  in  value.7  Practice  was  simple. 
Writs  ran  not  in  the  name  of  the  King,  but  as  simple  justice's  war 
rants,  and  were  published  at  the  door  of  the  parish  church.8  There 
were  no  writs  of  error,  but  appeals  only,  allowing  no  new  matter,  and 

1  Herring,  1661-'62.  2  Burnaby,  p.  21 ;  Smyth,  i.,  20. 

3  Hening,  1657, 1661.  4  Burnaby,  p.  21. 

5  Hening,  1643 ;  Present  State  of  Virginia,  Hartwell,  1729;  Burke,  ii.,  30. 

6  Beverly,  App.  7  Hening,  1748-'55. 
8  Present  State  of  Virginia,  Hartwell,  1729 ;  Beverly,  App. 

4 


50  HISTORY  OF  THE 

as  late  as  1729  there- was  no  formal  pleading.1  This  legal  system  in 
dicates  unmistakably  the  absence  of  a  strong  class  of  professional 
lawyers.  Lawyers  were,  in  fact,  only  just  beginning  to  flourish  and 
gain  importance  as  a  class  in  the  years  immediately  preceding  the 
Revolution.  In  the  early  times  there  appears  to  have  been  a  number 
of  sharp  and  unscrupulous  attorneys,  probably  adventurers  from  Eng 
land,  whose  existence  called  forth  much  hostile  legislation.  In  1643, 
on  account  of  the  heavy  fees,  attorneys  were  compelled  to  take  out  a 
license,  could  plead  only  in  general  court  and  one  county  court,  and 
fees  were  limited.  Two  years  later  "  mercenary  "  attorneys  were  to  be 
expelled;  and  in  1646,  all  fees  were  prohibited,  and  the  court  appoint 
ed  some  one  from  the  people  to  help  the  suitors,  but  without  fees.  A 
few  years  later  these  enactments  were  repealed ;  and  after  many  fluctu 
ations  between  no  attorneys  on  the  one  hand,  and  no  regulations  for 
practitioners  on  the  other,  the  system  of  licenses  and  examinations  was, 
on  account  of  the  grievances  arising  from  ignorant  lawyers,  revived 
and  enforced,  and  fees  were  regulated  by  the  court.8  The  growing  im 
portance  of  the  lawyers  as  a  class  is  shown  about  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century  by  the  distinction  carefully  made  in  the  statutes 
between  barristers  and  attorneys.3  Such  was  the  judicial  and  legal 
system  of  Virginia.  It  was  in  many  respects  rude  and  imperfect; 
but  it  seems  to  have  worked  well,  and  to  have  served  the  ends  of 
justice.  The  courts  were  trusted  and  obeyed  by  the  people,  and  the 
general  organization,  as  well  as  the  lawyers,  and  the  knowledge  of 
law,  kept  pace  with  the  development  of  the  community.  As  in  all 
the  colonies,  the  common  law  was  adopted  and  followed,  except  in 
so  far  as  it  was  modified  by  acts  of  Parliament  or  the  local  statutes. 

The  distribution  of  the  population  which  lived  under  the  system  of 
government  and  laws  which  have  just  been  described  was  an  important 
factor  in  the  social  and  political  condition  of  Virginia.  One  great 
element  of  modern  life  was  wholly  wanting.  There  were  practically 
no  towns  and  no  centres  of  population.  The  people  were  widely 
scattered  over  the  whole  face  of  the  country.  This  diffusion  had  be 
gun  at  an  early  day,  and  the  habit  of  dispersion  became  strongly 
rooted  before  efforts  were  made  to  remedy  the  evils  which  it  produced. 
The  want  of  trade,  the  loss  incurred  by  dependence  upon  foreign  mer 
chants,  and  the  difficulties  of  transportation,  first  led  to  legislative  action 

1  Present  State  of  Virginia,  Hartwell. 

*  Hening,  1643-'45, 1646-'51, 1667-1742, 1745.  3  Ibid.,  1748-'55. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  51 

in  1661-'62,1  when  an  act  was  passed  for  the  benefit  of  Jamestown, 
where  each  county  was  required  to  build  a  house.  More  strenuous 
measures  were,  however,  found  to  be  necessary,  and  in  Lord  Culpep- 
per's  time  an  act  known  as  the  Cohabitation  Act  was  passed,  ordering 
towns  to  be  built  at  certain  specified  points,  for  the  benefit  of  trade 
and  manufactures.8  The  most  eminent  of  the  dissenting  clergymen 
supported  this  policy  in  a  tract  called  a  "  Perswasive  to  Towns  and 
Cohabitation,"  urging  the  loss  of  trade,  the  helpless  dependence  upon 
England  and  the  other  colonies,  as  arguments  for  the  scheme;3  but  the 
act  was  inoperative.  Ten  years  later  there  were  still  no  towns,  but 
only  paltry  villages ;  and  the  legislative  towns  generally  consisted  of 
one  house  with  a  store  and  office  for  the  transaction  of  a  small  retail 
business.4  The  government,  however,  persisted.  The  "  paper  "  towns, 
as  they  were  called,  were  made  the  only  ports  of  entry ;  privileges  were 
offered  to  tradesmen  who  would  settle  in  them  ;B  and  it  was  further 
enacted  that  every  town  should  have  a  fair  and  market.6  Everything 
failed  alike — not  only  laws,  but  the  much  stronger  influences  of  dimin 
ishing  trade,  heavy  losses  through  payments  to  small  retailers,  and  the 
powerful  support  of  the  Governor  and  of  the  Crown.7  In  1716  James 
town  consisted  of  a  church,  court-house,  and  three  or  four  brick  houses,8 
and  it  was  even  worse  with  the  "  paper "  towns.  Colonel  Byrd,  in 
1732,  writes  of  Fredericksburg,  that  "besides  Colonel  Willis,  who  is 
the  top  man  of  the  place,  there  are  only  one  merchant,  a  tailor,  a 
smith,  an  ordinary  keeper,  and  a  lady  who  acts  both  as  doctress  and 
coffee-house  keeper ;"  he  adds  that  Richmond  and  Petersburg  existed 
only  on  paper.9  Between  this  period  and  the  Revolution  there  was 
little  change.  At  the  close  of  the  French  war,  Norfolk,  with  about 
seven  thousand  inhabitants,  was  the  only  considerable  town  in  Vir 
ginia.10  Williamsburg,  the  gay  capital  and  the  seat  of  the  univershy, 
was  a  straggling  village  of  about  two  hundred  houses.  Burnaby,  who 
visited  Virginia  in  1759,  describes  it  as  a  pleasant  little  town,  with 
wooden  houses  and  unpaved  streets.11  At  one  end  was  the  college, 

I  Hening,  1661-'62.      2  Ibid.,  1680.      3  Makemie's  "Perswasive  to  Towns,"  etc. 
4  Foote,  i.,  9.  5  Maxwell's  Hist.  Register,  i.,  166. 

«  Hening,  1705. 

7  Collections  of  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.,  1st  series,  v.,  124,  account  of  Virginia;  Burke 
ii.,  124. 

8  Huguenot  Family  in  Virginia,  p.  271.  '  Byrd  MSS.,  ii.,  9,  72. 
10  Smyth,  i.,  11 ;  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  6 ;  Abbe  Robin,  p.  107. 

II  Burnaby,  p.  6. 


52  HISTORY  OF  THE 

said  by  Mr.  Jefferson  to  have  looked  like  a  brickkiln  with  a  roof,1 
and  at  the  other  the  Governor's  palace,  as  it  was  affectedly  called,  like 
wise  of  brick,  and  apparently  the  handsomest  structure  in  Virginia. 
An  indifferent  church  and  some  insignificant  public  buildings  com 
pleted  the  architectural  glories  of  the  capital.  A  dozen  families  of 
the  gentry  lived  in  the  town,  and  the  rest  of  the  inhabitants  were 
tradesmen.  Such  life  as  there  was  in  Williamsburg  was  due  solely  to 
its  selection  as  the  seat  of  government.3  Jamestown,  the  old  capital, 
was  utterly  effaced,  and  the  only  substantial  sources  of  growth  to  the 
legislative  towns  were  the  Government  warehouses  for  the  inspection 
of  tobacco.  This  system  had  been  established  in  the  earliest  times,8 
and  after  a  long  period  had  built  up  Petersburg,  Fredericksburg,  and 
Alexandria  ;4  but  these  places  were,  after  all,  mere  unpaved,  strag 
gling  villages,  with  no  business  outside  the  tobacco-houses,  and  inhab 
ited  chiefly  by  liquor-dealers,  small  shopkeepers,  and  smaller  lawyers, 
who  preyed  upon  the  country  people  of  the  neighborhood.6  It  fared 
no  better  with  the  county  seats  established  by  law  in  each  county  for 
the  better  administration  of  justice.  These  towns,  planted  in  many 
cases  in  the  midst  of  the  forest,  usually  consisted  of  the  court-house, 
the  prison,  and  its  accompaniments  of  stocks,  pillory,  whipping-post, 
and  ducking-stool,  with  one  miserable  inn,  where  the  judges  lodged 
when  they  came  to  hold  court.6  Usually,  too,  the  parish  church  flanked 
the  court-house  ;7  but  this  was  not  universal.  The  Sunday  services  or 
the  sessions  of  the  court  called  all  the  people  to  the  county  seat ;  but 
when  these  were  over  the  town  relapsed  into  the  quiet  of  the  wilder 
ness.  The  explanation  of  this  strange  state  of  affairs  lay  in  the  char 
acter  of  the  population  and  their  pursuits.  Colonel  Byrd,  one  of  the 
wealthiest  of  Virginian  planters,  who  wrote  against  the  legal  ports  of 
entry,  argued  that  the  system  of  life,  the  country,  and  the  popular 
habits,  were  all  opposed  to  them.8  Writers  on  the  other  side  admit 
that  the  popular  aversion  to  towns  was  very  strong;  but  they  con 
tend  that  this  was  due  to  indolence,  jealousy,  and  the  desire  of  every 

1  Weld's  Travels,  p.  127. 

1  For  descriptions  of  Williamsburg,  see  Burnaby,  p.  6 ;  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  24- 
27;  Smyth,  i.,  17;  Weld,  p.  127;  Abbe"  Robin,  p.  107;  Georgia  Hist.  Coll.,  IV., 
Itin.  Observations,  1745,  p.  48.  ,  8  Hening,  1633. 

4  Smyth,  i.,  62, 162,  201 ;  Burnaby,  p.  43 ;  Brissot,  p.  367. 

5  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  21. 

9  Ibid.,  i.,  65 ;  Hening,  1661-'62,  p.  2 ;  Byrd  MSS.,  i.,  72. 

7  Meade's  Old  Churches,  ii.,  68.  •  Byrd  MSS.,  ii.,  162. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  53 

planter  to  have  the  port  of  entry  at  his  own  door.1  These  reasons 
undoubtedly  explain  the  opposition  to  towns,  and  the  fact  of  their  re 
maining  small  and  insignificant  villages ;  but  the  cause,  of  this  oppo 
sition  is  to  be  found  in  the  occupations  of  the  people,  which,  until  fixed 
and  endeared  by  habit,  were,  of  course,  merely  the  result  of  circum 
stances  at  the  foundation  of  the  settlement. 

What  the  pursuits  and  occupations  of  Virginians  were  at  the  period 
preceding  the  revolution  it  is  not  difficult  to  discover,  for  they  were 
few  and  simple  to  the  last  degree.  The  legal  profession,  as  has  been 
shown  by  the  course  of  legislation  against  attorneys,  was  not  held  in 
high  repute,  and  lawyers,  as  a  class,  were  only  just  beginning  to  as 
sume  importance  in  the  years  immediately  before  the  Revolution.  In 
early  days  there  were  evidently  plenty  of  attorneys,  so  called,  but  they 
were  for  the  most  part  pettifoggers  and  sharpers,  broken  adventurers 
from  London,  and  indented  servants,  who,  having  been  convicts,  chose 
on  their  release  the  profession  which,  in  a  rude  state  of  society,  gave 
them  the  best  opportunity  of  fleecing  the  community.  The  only  man 
who  appears  to  have  attained  an  honorable  eminence  .in  the  seven 
teenth  century  simply  as  a  lawyer  was  William  Fitzhugh,  the  de 
fender  of  Beverly  in  his  gallant  struggle  with  Lord  Culpepper.8  In 
1734  two  lawyers  are  mentioned  who  had  displayed  ability  and 
achieved  legitimate  success  in  their  profession,  although  one  of  them 
was  a  broken-down  London  practitioner.3  Sir  John  Randolph,  for 
many  years  attorney-general,  was  a  Conspicuous  and  learned  advocate. 
But  the  rarity  of  such  cases  shows  as  clearly  as  the  course  of  legisla 
tion  the  low  standing  of  the  legal  profession.  The  increase  of  wealth 
and  civilization  effected  finally  a  change  in  this  respect ;  but  it  is  only 
at  the  close  of  the  colonial  period  that  we  find  men  of  high  position 
and  real  talents  devoting  themselves  to  the  law,  and  only  just  in  sea 
son  to  play  an  important  and  leading  part  in  the  conflict  with  the 
mother  country.  It  was  at  this  period  that  such  men  as  Patrick 
Henry,  Jefferson,  George  Mason,  and  Wythe  studied  law,  and  were 
admitted  to  the  bar,  which  found  its  crowning  glory  in  John  Marshall, 
the  greatest  name  of  all  those  that  have  adorned  the  legal  profession 
in  America. 

The  profession  of  medicine,  which  nowhere  enjoyed  in  the  eigh 
teenth  century  the  consideration  that  it  now  deservedly  possesses,  was 

1  Makemie,  "  Perswasive  to  Towns ;"  Coll.  of  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.,  I.,  v.,  124. 
*  Maxwell,  Hist.  Register,  i.,  165.  *  Ibid.,  i.,  119. 


54  HISTORY  OF  THE 

especially  low  in  Virginia.  Almost  all  the  knowledge  we  have  of  the 
medical  profession  is  from  the  statutes  relating  to  it,  and  this  is  in 
itself  a  significant  fact.  In  1657  laws  were  passed  to  regulate  sur 
geons,  and  the  power  to  settle  fees  was  given  to  the  courts.  A  few 
years  later  bills  of  surgeons  were  made  pleadable  against  the  estate  of 
a  deceased  person,  which  indicates  the  precarious,  half-recognition  ex- 
•  tended  to  the  profession.  In  the  next  century  elaborate  laws  were 
passed  in  regard  to  physicians,  because  "  surgeons,  apothecaries,  and 
unskilful  apprentices,  who  exacted  unreasonable  fees,  and  loaded 
their  patients  with  medicine,"  took  up  the  practice  of  the  healing 
art,  to  the  detriment  probably  of  the  good  people  of  Virginia. 
Fees  were  fixed  by  this  statute,  one  shilling  per  mile  being  the  rate, 
and  all  medicines  were  to  be  set  forth  in  the  bill.  Two  pounds 
was  to  be  the  price  of  attending  a  common  fracture,  and  twice  as 
much  for  a  compound  one.  Those  physicians  who  held  university 
degrees  were  allowed  to  make  a  double  charge  ;l  and  there  were  un 
doubtedly  a  few  of  this  last  class  in  Virginia,  men  of  position  and 
family,  who  had  been  educated  abroad,  and  were  a  credit  to  their  pro 
fession.2  But  their  number  was  very  small,  and  it  cannot  be  doubted 
that  the  dispenser  of  drugs,  the  rude  village  surgeon  and  barber,  or 
the  unskilful  apprentice,  were  the  representatives  of  medicine  in  Vir 
ginia,  and  were  not  held  in  high  esteem.  The  profession  offered  little 
attraction  to  the  best  part  of  the  community,  was,  as  a  rule,  merely  a 
means  to  more  or  less  ignorant  men  of  making  a  living,  and  had  nei 
ther  social  nor  political  influence. 

As  the  army  and  navy  had  no  existence  in  Virginia,  only  one  pro 
fession  now  remains  to  be  accounted  for.  The  clergy  formed  the 
only  professedly  learned  class  in  the  community.3  They  possessed 
considerable  influence,  and  they  were  a  picturesque  element  in  society 
— more,  it  must  be  admitted,  from  their  failings  than  their  virtues. 
But  they  represented  also  a  great  institution  which  had  an  important 
effect  upon  the  people  of  Virginia,  and  to  understand  them  and  the 
Church  which  they  served  involves  a  discussion  of  the  whole  religious 
system. 

John  Smith  and  his  followers  brought  with  them  a  worthy  minis 
ter  of  the  Established  Church,  which  from  that  time  onward  was  pro 
tected  and  fostered  by  the  government  of  Virginia.  During  the 

1  Hening,  1657-'60, 1661-'62,  166d,  and  1736.  9  Meade,  i.,  407. 

•  Foote,  i.,  149. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  55 

seventeenth  century  the  Puritan  spirit,  which  leavened  the  whole  of 
English  society,  was  felt  in  Virginia,  and  showed  itself  strongly  in 
the  Church.  Elaborate  measures  for  the  maintenance  of  the  Church 
and  the  clergy,  and  for  the  propagation  of  the  true  faith,  were  passed 
by  the  early  Assemblies,  and  re-enacted  and  extended  by  all  their  suc 
cessors  in  turn.1  Severe  laws  against  Sabbath-breaking  exhibit  still 
more  strongly  the  puritanical  spirit  which  pervaded  the  Virginian  es 
tablishment.  Work,  sport,  and  travel  were  prohibited  on  Sunday, 
and  heavy  penalties  were  paid  for  absence  from  divine  service.2  One 
man  was  formally  excommunicated  for  wearing  his  hat  in  church.8 
The  same  stern  quality  of  the  times  was  manifested  in  the  most  rigid 
laws  for  conformity.4  Separatist  meetings  were  broken  up,  a  fine 
of  five  thousand  pounds  of  tobacco  was  exacted  from  the  participants, 
and  Non  -  conformists  were  expelled  from  the  colony.  Under  the 
Commonwealth  there  was  some  relaxation,  but  both  Churchmen  and 
Puritans  persecuted  Papists  and  Quakers.  The  former  were  dis 
abled  from  office ;  the  latter  were  thrown  into  prison  without  bail, 
banished,  and  adjudged  to  be  felons  if  they  returned  a  second  time. 
Those  who  brought  in  or  entertained  Quakers  were  liable  to  heavy 
fines.6  With  the  Restoration,  the  Established  Church  again  asserted  its 
supremacy,  and  all  dissenters  came  under  the  ban,  and  were  pilloried 
and  fined.8  The  first  sect  to  make  head  against  the  prevailing  intol 
erance  was  the  Presbyterian.  The  conflict  was  carried  on  by  the  Rev. 
Francis  Makemie,  and  was  supported  by  the  presence  of  a  large  and 
useful  body  of  Scotch -Irish  settlers.  Yet  pastor  and  people  suf 
fered  alike  from  the  laws,  and  even  the  emigrants  from  Londonderry 
could  not  obtain  recognition,  but  were  compelled  to  pay  tithes,  and 
forced  out  to  the  frontier.  The  Toleration  Act  of  William  and  Mary 
obtained  only  the  barest  sufferance  for  Makemie  and  his  followers  in 
Virginia.7  The  superstitious  side  of  religion  at  this  period  was  not 
without  vitality,  for,  as  late  as  the  year  1705,  Grace  Sherwood  was 
ducked  for  witchcraft.8 

But  with  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  vigorous, 
zealous,  intolerant  spirit  began  to  decline,  and  the  Church  rapidly 

1  Hening,  e.g.,  1623-'24, 1632, 1660.         2  Ibid.,  1629, 1632, 1643, 1691, 1705. 
3  Ibid.,  1640.  4  Ibid.,  1623,  1645-'46 ;  Foote,  i.,  23. 

5  Foote,  i.,  35  ;  Hening,  1643,  1659,  1661-'63. 

6  Ibid. ;  see  also  Anderson's  History  of  Colonial  Church,  ii.,  27 ;  Burke,  ii.,  131 ; 
and  Meade,  i.,  283,  384. 

7  Foote,  i.,  35.  8  Howe's  Virginia. 


56  HISTORY  OF  THE 

lost  ground  among  the  people.  In  1699  there  were  few  dissenters 
in  Virginia,  and  three  or  four  Presbyterian  meeting-houses  and  a 
Quaker  conventicle  were  the  only  places  of  worship  outside  the  pale 
of  the  Church.1  At  the  time  of  the  Revolution  more  than  half  the 
population  were  dissenters,  and  in  the  shock  of  war  the  old  Establish 
ment  went  helplessly  and  hopelessly  to  pieces,  unregretted,  apparently, 
by  any  one.  The  course  and  reasons  of  the  change  can  be  readily 
followed.  The  reaction  which  ensued  after  the  intense  spiritual  ex 
citement  of  the  seventeenth  century  produced  a  species  of  religious 
lethargy  in  the  eighteenth.  Frigid  morality,  a  well-bred  abhorrence 
of  anything  like  zeal,  and  a  worldly  indifference,  characterized  the 
English  clergymen  of  the  latter  period,  and  their  Virginian  brethren  as 
well.  The  colonial  ministers  were  as  a  class  ruder  and  narrower  than 
those  of  the  mother  country,  and  their  coldness  and  indifference  to 
great  religious  principles  showed  themselves  more  plainly  and  coarse 
ly  ;  but  the  essential  spirit  of  both  the  imperial  and  the  provincial 
Church  was  the  same.  The  results,  too,  were  identical.  Religion  de 
clined,  and  "paganism,  atheism,  and  sectaries"  began  to  prevail.3 
"  Quakers,"  says  Colonel  Byrd,  "  prevail  in  Nansemond  County,  for 
the  want  of  ministers  to  pilot  people  a  better  way  to  heaven."  Cler 
gymen  would  not  go  there  because  the  tobacco,  in  which  their  sala 
ries  were  paid,  was  bad ;  and  the  honest  colonel,  who  retained  the  old 
spirit,  and  would  not  have  permitted  on  Sunday  any  work  but  that 
of  charity,  self-preservation,  or  necessity,  wonders  rather  grimly  that 
Jesuits  and  Puritans  have  not  seized  on  so  promising  a  field.8 

Although  the  Jesuit  and  the  Puritan  did  not  come,  the  religious 
revival  which  swept  over  England  with  Wesley  broke  out  with  great 
force  in  the  province.  But  the  Virginians  dealt  with  this  movement 
in  more  simple  and  vigorous  fashion  than  did  their  English  cousins. 
Not  long  before,  the  Presbyterians,  who  had  taken  the  field  more  than 
half  a  century  earlier,  supported  by  a  strong  and  growing  element  of 
the  population,  had  wrested  from  Governor  Gooch  promises  of  tolera 
tion  to  those  of  their  faith  who  were  pushing  the  settlements  on  the 
western  frontier.*  Immediate  advantage  was  taken  of  this  relaxa 
tion,  and  some  of  the  leading  clergymen,  eloquent  and  earnest  men, 
began  an  active  proselyting,6  which  soon  aroused  the  latent  hostility 


1  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Collections,  1st  series,  v.,  124. 

8  Tyler's  Hist,  of  American  Literature,  i.,  80 ;  Campbell,  p.  382. 

*  Byrd  MSS.,  i.,42, 153.  «  Foote,  ii.,  84, 164.  6  Ibid.,  p.  104. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  57 

of  the  ruling  Church ;  and  the  Presbyterians,  who  had  borne  for  so 
many  years  the  brunt  of  the  battle  in  behalf  of  the  rights  of  con 
science,  were  the  first  to  feel  the  wrath  aroused  by  their  renewed  activ 
ity.  Gooch  joined  in  the  resistance  to  the  new  doctrines,  and  in 
dictments  were  found  against  the  Presbyterian  clergy  for  their  un 
licensed  preaching.1  But  the  character  and  respectability  of  the 
Presbyterians  saved  them  from  the  savage  attacks  made  upon  the 
humbler  and  more  energetic  sects  which  sprang  up  with  the  revival. 
The  Moravians,  New  Lights,  and  Baptists  were  denounced  by  Gooch 
in  1745  in  a  charge  to  the  grand -jury,  and  in  the  following  year 
their  meetings  were  forbidden.2  The  Baptists  suffered  most  severely. 
Their  meetings  were  broken  up  by  rough  crowds,  their  preachers 
were  thrown  into  prison,  and  treated  with  the  utmost  ignominy,  and 
the  mob  invaded  their  baptismal  services,  and  abused  and  assaulted 
the  participants,  who  were  beaten  and  maltreated  in  every  way.3 
This  antiquated  method  of  dealing  with  religious  differences  of  opin 
ion  was  due  not  to  zeal,  but  to  interest.  The  Established  Church 
was  one  of  the  appendages  of  the  Virginian  aristocracy.  They  con 
trolled  the  vestries  and  the  ministers,  and  the  parish  church  stood  not 
infrequently  on  the  estate  of  the  great  planter  who  had  built  and 
managed  it.*  The  ruling  class,  therefore,  regarded  the  revival  as  an 
attack  upon  property  and  vested  rights,  and  as  an  assault  upon  one 
of  the  bulwarks  of  society.  It  was  the  conservative  opposed  to  the 
innovating  spirit.  The  conservative  element  had  the  political  power, 
and  they  put  down  the  innovators  with  a  high  hand.  In  all  attacks 
upon  the  Baptists,  the  magistrates,  who  were  of  the  ruling  class  in  the 
province,  were  the  most  active,5  and  Peyton  Randolph,  bearing  the 
first  name  in  Virginia,  headed  the  opposition  to  giving  licenses  to 
the  Presbyterians.6 

Such  a  policy  could  have  but  one  result.  The  dissenting  sects 
were  full  of  vitality,  and  they  grew  apace,  while  the  Established 
Church,  maintained  simply  as  part  of  a  social  system,  declined  with 
proportionate  rapidity.  Good  judges  estimated  the  number  of  dis 
senters  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution  as  comprising  two-thirds  of  the 
population.7  The  intolerance  and  persecution  of  the  ruling  class 

1  Foote,  ii.,  133,  135.  2  Burke,  iii.,  119,  125. 

3  Semple's  Hist,  of  the  Baptists,  pp.  7,  15, 17,  23  ;  Hening,  1759;  Tyler's  Hist, 
of  American  Literature,  i,,  90. 

4  Foote,  i.,  23.  6  Burke,  iii.,  121.  6  Foote,  ii.,  171. 
7  Foote,  ii.,  319,  citing  Jefferson  and  Burke ;  see  contra,  Burnaby,p.  23. 


58  HISTORY  OF  THE 

awakened  the  active  indignation  of  the  coming  leaders  in  the  new  era 
of  political  development.  The  gentle  nature  of  young  James  Madi 
son  was  deeply  stirred  by  the  harsh  treatment  of  the  sectaries,  and  he 
exerted  himself  strongly  against  their  oppressors.1  The  powerful  hu 
man  sympathies  and  liberal  views  of  Thomas  Jefferson  brought  him 
to  similar  conclusions,  which  rapidly  gained  ground  among  the  rev 
olutionary  leaders.  The  shock  of  war  precipitated  the  inevitable  re 
sult,  for  the  dissenters  to  a  man  almost  were  on  the  patriotic  side,3  and 
public  opinion  could  not  consistently  overlook  religious  freedom  in  a 
struggle  for  political  liberty.  After  a  short,  sharp  conflict  the  privi 
leges  of  the  old  Established  Church  were  swept  away,  and  all  faiths 
became  equal  before  the  law.8  The  fall  of  the  Church  revealed  pain 
fully  its  low  condition ;  the  substance  had  gone,  and  nothing  remain 
ed  but  the  husks.  As  soon  as  the  State  support  was  withdrawn,  the 
whole  edifice  of  the  Church  went  to  pieces,  for  it  had  no  genuine 
religious  strength.  Religious  indifference  was  found  to  prevail  every 
where;  the  people  seemed  to  have  no  religious  sense;  the  churches 
fell  into  ruin  and  neglect ;  the  service  of  the  Church  was  abandoned, 
not  only  in  outlying  parishes,  but  in  many  of  the  towns,  and  the  leg 
acy  of  irreligion  was  all  that  the  Church  of  England  bequeathed  to 
Virginia.4 

This  religious  indifference  had  of  course  existed  for  many  years, 
but  it  was  covered  up  by  forms  and  by  the  strong  shelter  of  the  State. 
The  organization  of  the  Church  had  real  power  and  meaning,  although 
the  spiritual  force  had  decayed.  At  the  close  of  the  French  war  there 
were  in  Virginia  sixty  or  seventy  parishes  of  the  Established  Church, 
and  these  were  governed  by  the  vestries,  which  were  very  important 
and  active  bodies.  They  represented  all  the  local  and  municipal  gov 
ernment  there  was  in  Virginia,  and  had  attained,  moreover,  a  com 
manding  position  in  Church  affairs.  At  an  early  day  secular  func 
tions  were  assigned  to  them  by  the  Burgesses.  They  were  to  make 
returns  of  births,  marriages,  and  deaths,  present  for  crimes  under  the 
statutes  against  vice,  command  the  sheriff  to  hold  the  election  for  Bur 
gesses,  and  assist  the  county  courts  in  building  workhouses.  To  the 
vestry  belonged  the  duty  of  "  processioning  the  land  "  once  in  four 

1  Rives's  Life  of  Madison,  i.,  42-44. 

9  Semple,  p.  23 ;  Foote,  ii.,  171.  3  Burke,  iv.,  377. 

.4  Weld's  Travels,  pp.  107,  133  ;  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  50-56,  101.  As  to  the  gen 
eral  condition  of  the  Church,  see  Letter  of  Bishop  of  London  in  vol.  iii.  Doc.  Rel. 
to  Col.  Hi»t.  of  New  York. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  59 

years,  and  upon  them  devolved  the  care  of  roads  and  ferries.1  Thus 
far  they  corresponded  to  the  English  vestries  and  the  New  England 
town-meeting;  and,  as  might  be  imagined, became  in  time  of  revolu 
tion  a  nucleus  of  opposition.8  Their  ecclesiastical  powers  were  more 
extended.  In  the  time  of  the  Commonwealth,  and  under  Bacon's 
brief  rule,  they  obtained  rights  which  were  never  wrung  from  them.3 
The  most  important  was  the  power  of  raising  the  salary  of  the  minis 
ter,  and  they  also  made  good  their  claim  to  the  right  of  controlling  the 
induction,  after  bitter  contests  with  the  Governor  and  Commissary. 
They  were  able  to  hire  their  ministers  from  year  to  year,  and  thus 
kept  their  pastors  entirely  at  their  mercy,  crippling  the  Governor's 
power  of  inducting  for  life  completely,  and  not  infrequently  they 
handled  their  spiritual  guides  very  roughly.4  By  a  law  of  the  Com 
monwealth  period  all  affairs  of  the  vestry  and  Church  were  assigned 
to  the  control  of  the  members  of  the  parish,  and  the  Restoration  sim 
ply  obliged  the  vestry  to  take  the  oaths  of  supremacy,  allegiance,  and 
conformity  to  the  Church  of  England,  but  did  not  revoke  their  right 
of  settling  the  minister's  salary.6  At  the  time  of  the  Revolution  the 
vestries,  consisting  of  twelve  of  the  parish,  were  chosen  by  the  heads 
of  families,  and  were  in  the  hands  of  the  ruling  class.8  Washington, 
Henry,  the  Randolphs,  and  the  Lees  fairly  represent  the  kind  of  men 
who  sat  at  these  local  boards,  and  thus  controlled  the  sources  of  polit 
ical  power.7 

The  head  of  the  Church  was  the  royal  Governor,  to  whom  belong 
ed,  nominally  at  least,  the  right  of  induction,  while  the  supervision  of 
ecclesiastical  matters  was  intrusted  to  a  commissary  appointed  by  the 
Bishop  of  London  and  paid  from  the  royal  quit-rents.8  Attempts 
were  made  to  substitute  a  bishop  for  the  commissary ;  but,  though 
often  renewed,  they  never  succeeded,  and  invariably  aroused  a  most 
bitter  resistance.  Among  the  many  causes  of  hostility  to  England 
was  the  dread  of  a  bishop,  and  the  efforts  to  bring  about  such  an  ap 
pointment  did  much  to  injure  the  Church  and  render  unpopular  the 

1  Hening,  1632-'45, 1646-'57, 1659-'60, 1668-"76, 1696, 1727, 1748 ;  Foote,  i.,  23. 

2  Rives's  Madison,  i.,  49 ;  Meade,  i.,  151, 163. 

3  Hening,  1646,  1657,  1676. 

4  Anderson's  Hist,  of  Col.  Church,  i.,  350,  377 ;  Present  State  of  Virginia,  Hart- 
well  ;  Present  State  of  Virginia,  Jones. 

5  Hening,  1660.  «  Present  State  of  Virginia,  Hartwell. 

7  Rives's  Madison,  i.,  49;  Meade,  p.  151-160. 

8  Present  State  of  Virginia,  Hartwell ;  Burnaby,  p.  25. 


60  HISTORY  OF  THE 

clergymen  who  advocated  it.1  This  office  of  commissary  and  that  of 
president  of  the  college,  which,  except  in  one  case,  always  went  with 
it,  was  a  high  and  important  one,  uniting,  when  in  the  hands  of  a 
strong  man  like  James  Blair,  much  political  as  well  as  religious  pow 
er.8  But,  although  the  commissaries  were  often  able  to  successfully 
resist  the  Governor  and  maintain  their  own  independence,  they  were 
not  able  to  keep  up  the  character  of  the  clergy. 

The  ministers  of  the  Church  were  an  important  class  in  Virginia. 
By  a  law  of  1696  their  salary  was  fixed  at  16,000  pounds  of  tobacco, 
and  this  stipend  was  largely  increased  by  legal  fees  for  marriages,  fu 
nerals,  and  christenings.3  They  were  also  given  by  law  a  glebe  and  a 
parsonage,  supplied  by  the  vestry  at  the  cost  of  the  parish.  In  the 
seventeenth  century,  although  there  were  undoubtedly  many  advent 
urers  and  scapegraces  from  England4  among  the  clergy,  the  body  of 
the  profession  appear  to  have  been  honest  and  zealous  men,  not  highly 
educated,  but  faithful  and  sufficient  in  their  discharge  of  duty.  Dur 
ing  the  eighteenth  century  they  rapidly  declined  in  character,  although 
to  the  last  they  formed  an  important  and  picturesque  element  in  Vir 
ginian  life.  The  overpowering  influence  of  the  vestries,  the  transat 
lantic  patronage  which  filled  the  ministry, and  the  foreign  extraction 
of  many  of  the  incumbents  of  livings  did  much  toward  the  degener 
acy  of  the  clergy.  But  the  main  cause  was  to  be  found  in  the  cold 
and  worldly  spirit  which  characterized  the  Church  of  England  at  this 
time,  both  at  home  and  abroad.  With  some  exceptions,  the  Virginian 
clergy  aped  the  manners  and  habits  of  the  laity.  Most  of  them  were 
men  who  cultivated  their  glebes  like  other  planters,  preaching  once  a 
week,  and  performing  the  other  services  of  the  Church  for  the  sake  of 
an  addition  to  their  income.  Their  morals  were  loose,  and  the  gen 
eral  tone  of  the  profession  was  low.  Here  and  there  might  be  found 
a  man  of  exemplary  life  and  high  character ;  but  the  average  parson 
was  coarse  and  rough,  and  his  parishioners  might  be  thankful  if  he 
was  not  also  a  drunkard  and  a  gambler.  They  hunted  the  fox  and 
raced  horses,  they  played  cards,  turned  marriages,  christenings,  and 
funerals  alike  into  revels,  and  sat  out  the  stoutest  planter  after  dinner, 
to  finally  accompany  him  under  the  table.  One  reverend  gentleman 
bawled  to  his  church-warden  during  communion,  "  Here,  George,  this 

1  Anderson,  ii.,  368 ;  iii.,  163  ;  Meade,  i.,  170, 171. 

'  Meade,  i.,  94, 150 ;  Foote,  ii.,  153 ;  Tyler's  Hist,  of  Am.  Literature,  i.,  90. 

8  Hening,  1696  ;  Foote,  ii.,  148.     1743,  fees  fixed  by  law. 

4  Foote,  i.,  23 ;  Mrs.  Behn,  The  Widow  Ranter,  iv.,  116. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  61 

bread  is  not  fit  for  a  dog."  Another  commemorated  his  church  and 
office  by  fighting  a  duel  in  the  graveyard.  Another  received  a  regu 
lar  stipend  for  preaching  four  sermons  annually  against  atheism,  gam' 
bling,  racing,  and  swearing,  although  he  was  notorious  as  a  gambler, 
swearer,  and  horse -racer.  Still  another,  of  great  physical  strength, 
thrashed  his  vestry  soundly,  and  then  added  insult  to  injury  by  preach 
ing  to  them  next  day  from  the  text, "  And  I  contended  with  them, 
and  cursed  them,  and  smote  certain  of  them,  and  plucked  off  their 
hair."1  One  married  a  wealthy  widow,  although  he  had  a  wife  liv 
ing  in  England.  Another  was  brought  before  the  magistrate,  a  fel 
low-clergyman,  for  drinking  and  carousing  on  Christmas-eve ;  and  yet 
another  is  remembered  who,  after  dinner  every  Sunday  with  the  great 
planter  of  the  neighborhood,  was  tied  in  his  chaise  and  sent  home 
with  a  servant.  At  every  race-course  and  cock-pit  might  be  seen  rev 
erend  divines  betting  on  the  contending  birds  or  horses.8  The  petty 
tradesmen  would  not  trust  them  beyond  their  salary,  and  extorted 
one  hundred  and  fifty  per  cent,  for  interest.  They  were  both  ex 
travagant  and  poor,8  and  the  list  of  clerical  exploits  in  card-playing, 
horse -racing,  fox-hunting,  and  drinking  might  be  extended  indefi 
nitely.  Worthy  Bishop  Meade,  who  recounts  their  doings  with  much 
sorrow,  says  "  There  was  not  only  defective  preaching  but,  as  might 
be  expected,  most  evil,  living  am6ng  the  clergy."  The  natural  result, 
already  described,  followed,  and  the  revival  of  the  eighteenth  centu 
ry,  headed  by  the  Baptists,  Wesleyans,  Moravians,  and  "  New  Lights," 
broke  down  the  old  clergy  and  their  abuses  together.  Then  came 
the  ill-advised  struggle  for  salaries,  famous  as  "  The  Parson's  Cause," 
the  fatuous  effort  to  procure  a  bishop,  and  a  fatal  indecision  and  luke- 
warmness  in  the  contest  with  England.  The  Revolution  was  a  fin 
ishing-stroke,  and  the  old  Church  of  Virginia  perished  with  as  much 
justice,  and  as  completely,  as  did  the  English  Catholic  Church  under 
Henry  VIII. 

If  it  fared  ill  with  the  learned  professions  in  Virginia,  the  case  was 
no  better  in  regard  to  trade  and  industry,  which  have  risen  to  such 
commanding  positions  in  modern  times.  The  representatives  of  these 
important  interests  did  not  even  attain  to  the  dignity  of  a  class.  There 
•were  a  few  merchants  in  Norfolk;  but  the  tradesmen  were  merely 
small  shopkeepers,  scattered  about  among  the  little  towns.  Other 

1  Meade,  i.,  18, 162, 231, 250, 275, 361, 387, 470 ;  ii.,  179. 

2  Foote,  ii.,  371.  8  Byrd  MSS.,  i.,  46. 


62  HISTORY  OF  THE 

petty  retailers  were  established  at  the  county  seats,  where  they  kept 
the  one  store  of  the  neighborhood,  which  formed,  with  the  inn  and 
court-house,  the  county  town.1  Others,  again,  travelled  about  the  coun 
try,  exchanging  their  goods  for  tobacco,  and  pushing  even  beyond  the 
mountains  to  traffic  with  the  frontiersmen  and  Indians  for  furs,  the 
savages  offering  an  inviting  and  lucrative  market,  in  which  even  the 
great  planters  were  not  ashamed  to  share.2  These  small  traders  car 
ried  on  a  thriving  business,  preying  upon  the  necessities  of  the  plant 
ers  and  clergy,  and  extorting  ruinous  interest  whenever  they  gave 
credit.  There  was,  indeed,  but  little  encouragement  for  a  mercantile 
class.  The  merchants  fared  best ;  but  were  obliged  to  give  long  cred 
it,  and  take  their  pay  in  tobacco,  on  which,  from  its  fluctuation,  there 
were  often  serious  losses.  The  tradesmen  had  no  markets,  and  had 
either  to  raise  corn  and  stock  themselves,  or  take  them  in  payment. 
All  exchange  was  slow  and  cumbrous,  and  business  dragged  heavily. 
It  was,  in  fact,  essentially  petty,  for  almost  everything  of  necessity, 
and  all  manufactured  articles  were  imported  by  the  planters  direct 
from  England,8  and  the  shipping  was  entirely  in  the  hands  of  Eng 
lish  merchants  and  natives  of  the  other  colonies.4  Descending  a  step 
lower,  we  find  that,  except  in  the  immediate  neighborhood  of  Norfolk 
and  the  sea-coast,6  there  were  few  or  no  mechanics.6  The  ruder  and 
most  necessary  arts  were  practised  on  every  plantation  by  slaves  trained 
for  the  purpose,  and  each  landlord  had  in  this  way  his  own  workmen.7 
All  articles  requiring  any  skill  in  manufacture,  and  even  many  of  the 
simplest  in  domestic  use,  were  brought  ready-made  from  England.8 
Such  mechanics  as  there  were  had  to  gain,  in  many  cases,  a  precarious 
livelihood  by  travelling  about  among  the  plantations,  obtaining  the 
odd  bits  of  work  for  which  the  slaves  were  incompetent.9 

The  condition  of  the  tradesmen,  merchants,  and  mechanics  implies 
great  lack  of  variety  in  natural  products,  and  a  very  low  state  of  in 
dustries  of  all  sorts.  Indeed,  no  successful  attempts  had  been  made 
to  utilize  the  resources  of  the  country.  Good  cattle  and  horses 
abounded,  and  the  exportation  of  wheat  had  risen  to  five  hundred 
thousand  bushels  ;10  but  other  exports,  which  included  pork,  cider, 

1  Anburey,  ii.,  318.  2  Byrd  MSS.,  i.,  180. 

8  Foote,  i.,  9 ;  Rives's  Life  of  Madison,  i.,  643. 

4  Beverly.  5  Rochefoucauld,  ii.,  13. 

6  Hening,  1633.    Early  law  forbidding  mechanics  to  plant  shows  the  tendency. 

7  Rochefoucauld,  ii.,  80.  8  Hening,  1659.          9  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  I.,  v.,  124. 
10  Smyth,  ii.,  140  ;  Burnaby,  p.  19. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  63 

bar -iron,  and  indigo,  together  with  beef  and  lumber  from  Norfolk 
to  the  West  Indies,  were  trifling  in  amount.1  The  valuable  fisheries, 
from  which  at  first  much  had  been  expected,  were  wholly  neglected.2 
In  the  earliest  times  great  results  had  been  anticipated  from  vineyards 
and  silk  culture,  and  legislative  encouragement  had  been  freely  given.3 
But  neither  of  these  industries  ever  came  to  anything.  We  hear  of 
isolated  cases  where  wine  was  successfully  made,4  and  hopes  of  rais 
ing  silk  were  never  entirely  abandoned.  Here  and  there  silk  was 
made  and  woven,  and  there  is  an  account  of  a  silk  suit  made  by  a 
young  Virginian  girl  for  Washington,5  but  this  was  all.  Other  and 
more  useful  manufactures  fared  little  better.  In  the  seventeenth 
century  an  act  of  the  Legislature  obliged  the  counties  to  set  up  and 
maintain  looms,  and  employ  a  weaver,  but  even  this  violent  legisla 
tion  had  little  effect.6  Cotton  was  grown  in  small  quantities  before 
the  Revolution ;  and  a  coarse  fabric  used  by  the  lower  classes,  and 
known  as  Virginia  cloth,  was  woven  on  the  plantations.7  Early  en 
couragement  had  been  given  by  the  Assembly  to  the  manufacture  of 
linen;  but  as  late  as  the  year  1730  it  was  found  necessary  to  offer 
premiums  for  its  production,  which,  even  with  this  artificial  stimulus, 
remained  very  trifling,  and  had  little  more  than  a  bare  existence.8  So 
great  was  the  lack  of  capital  and  enterprise  that  even  the  grist-mills 
were  few  and  poor,  and  the  advantage  of  grinding  their  own  corn  was 
resigned  by  the  Virginians  to  other  colonies.9  Nothing  shows  more 
strikingly  the  absolute  dearth  of  manufactures  and  the  industrial  de 
pendence  of  the  country  than  Beverly's  lament,  in  1720,  over  the  shift- 
lessness  and  indolence  of  his  countrymen.  Chairs,  tables,  stools,  chests, 
boxes,  cart-wheels,  and  even  bowls  and  birchen  brooms,  were  imported.10 
The  great  mineral  wealth  of  the  country  was  likewise  wholly  unde 
veloped,11  except  as  to  iron,  of  which  there  was  an  insignificant  pror 
duction.  Governor  Spotswood  and  some  of  his  friends  had  opened 


I  Burnaby,  p.  21 ;  Byrd  MSS.,  i.,  19.  2  Burnaby,  p.  15 ;  Smyth,  i.,  67. 

3  Force's  Hist,  Tracts,  The  Silkworm  in  Virginia;  Hening,  1628,  1657. 

4  Huguenot  Family  in  Virginia,  p.  265  (1715) ;  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  87. 

5  Soldier  and  Pioneer ;  Anderson. 
c  Hening,  1666. 

7  Burnaby,  p.  21 ;  Abbe  Robin,  p.  107 ;  Anburey,  ii.,  378. 

8  Maxwell's  Hist.  Reg.,  i.,  167 ;  Burnaby,  p.  21 ;  Hening,  1682, 1730. 
*  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  9. 

10  Beverly,  book  iv.,  58 ;  compare  Hening,  1759. 

II  Present  State  of  Virginia,  Hartwell ;  Burnaby,  p.  16. 


64  HISTORY  OF  THE 

iron  mines,  and  built  forges  at  Germanna,  and  others  had  been  started 
in  various  parts  of  the  province  by  individual  planters.1  The  industry 
reached  the  dignity  of  exportation,  but  it  was  depressed  and  almost 
ruined  by  English  duties  and  management ;  and,  although  always  re 
ceiving  legislative  aid,  its  existence  was  so  feeble  that  in  the  eighteenth 
century  the  Assembly  exempted  all  persons  employed  in  the  iron-works 
from  taxation  and  militia  duty.8  Most  of  the  forges,  and,  indeed,  most 
of  the  manufacturing  of  all  sorts  was  carried  on  by  the  Germans  and 
Irish,  who  had  settled  in  the  West,  beyond  the  mountains.3 

The  explanation  of  the  condition  of  trade  and  industry  is  to  be 
found  in  the  absorption  of  the  population  in  the  cultivation  of  tobacco.4 
There  has  never  been  a  community,  probably,  in  which  any  one  great 
staple  has  played  such  a  part  as  in  Virginia.  Tobacco  founded  the 
colony  and  gave  it  wealth.  It  was  the  currency  of  Virginia ;  as  bad  a 
one  as  could  be  devised,  and  fluctuating  with  every  crop ;  yet  it  retain 
ed  its  place  as  circulating  medium  despite  the  most  strenuous  efforts 
to  introduce  specie.6  The  clergy  were  paid  and  taxes  were  levied  by 
the  Burgesses  in  tobacco.  The  whole  prosperity  of  the  colony  rested 
upon  it  for  more  than  a  century,  and  it  was  not  until  the  period  of 
the  Revolution  that  other  crops  began  to  come  in  and  replace  it." 
The  fluctuations  in  tobacco  caused  the  first  conflict  with  England, 
brought  on  by  the  violence  of  the  clergy,  and  paved  the  way  for  re 
sistance.7  In  tobacco  the  Virginian  estimated  his  income  and  the 
value  of  everything  he  possessed ;  and  in  its  various  functions,  as  well 
as  in  its  method  of  cultivation,  it  had  a  strong  effect  upon  the  char 
acter  of  the  people. 

As  early  as  the  year  1614  tobacco  had  become  the  staple,  and 
plants  were  growing  in  the  streets  of  Jamestown.  Sudden  wealth, 
over-production,  famine,8  laws  to  limit  planting  and  to  enforce  the 
sowing  of  corn,  and  quarrels  with  England,  were  the  first-fruits  of 
the  new  crop.  Then  followed  more  over-production,  falling  prices, 
financial  ruin,  attempts  to  raise  prices  artificially,  and  occasional  plant- 
cutting  riots  of  a  desperate  character.9  Every  interest  centred  in  the 

1  Byrd  MSS.,  ii.,  59  ;  Smyth,  i.,  28,  57 ;  ii.,  177. 

2  Byrd  MSS.,  ii.,  53  ;  Hening,  1727, 1748.  8  Smyth,  ii.,  258. 
4  Foote,  i.,  9 ;  Abbe  Robin,  p.  110.  5  Foote,  i.,  8. 

6  Raynal,  Rev.  in  America,  p.  90;  Weld,  p.  116 ;  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  57. 

7  Burnaby,  p.  25.  8  Burke,  i.,  1614. 

9  Burke,  ii.,  134;  Foote,  i.,  7;  Hening,  1629, 1632;  Hist.  Coll.  of  South  Carolina ; 
Young's  Letters ;  see  also  Campbell. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  65 

great  staple  as  it  rose  and  fell  with  each  ensuing  year,  while  its  use  as 
money  never  failed  to  give  an  unhealthy  incentive  to  its  lavish  and 
exclusive  production.  It  was,  too,  always  a  sore  subject  with  Eng 
land ;  and  the  "Case  of  the  Planters  of  Tobacco,"  in  1733,  presents 
a  sad  picture  of  the  losses  inflicted  by  the  mother  country  by  extor 
tionate  duties,  and,  what  was  much  worse,  by  fraud,  corruption,  clip 
ping,  and  favoritism  of  all  sorts  in  the  custom-house.1  Tobacco- 
planting  made  slaves  necessary  and  profitable,  and  fastened  slavery 
upon  the  province.  The  method  of  cultivation,  requiring  intense  la 
bor  and  watching  for  a  short  period,  and  permitting  complete  idle 
ness  for  the  rest  of  the  year,  fostered  habits  which  alternated  between 
feverish  exertion  and  languid  indolence.2  The  immense  returns,  and 
the  fact  of  staking  the  year's  income  on  the  result  of  a  short  period, 
as  well  as  the  rude  practice  of  growing  the  plants  until  the  land  was 
exhausted,  and  then  letting  it  go  wild  again,  and  clearing  fresh  acres, 
all  tended  to  produce  extravagance,  recklessness,  improvidence,  and  a 
spirit  of  speculation  among  the  people.8  As  the  whole  commercial  ex 
istence  of  the  State  rested  on  obtaining  a  market  for  tobacco,  the  gov 
ernment  took  every  measure  to  maintain  a  high  standard  in  respect 
to  quality.  Warehouses  were  established  at  an  early  period,  and  a 
system  of  inspection  organized  which  was  both  severe  and  thorough.4 
Just  before  the  Revolution  the  exportation  of  tobacco,  including  a 
small  quantity  from  North  Carolina,  had  risen  from  sixty  thousand, 
in  1*759,  to  one  hundred  thousand  hogsheads,  was  worth  nearly  a 
million  pounds  sterling,  and  employed  about  three  hundred  vessels.5 
From  the  distant  plantations  the  tobacco  was  floated  down  on  canoes 
lashed  together,  and  carrying  eight  or  nine  hogsheads,  as  far  as  the 
head  of  navigation,  where  there  was  a  warehouse,  and  a  small  town 
springing  up  around  it;  but  the  trade  was  chiefly  carried  on  by  the 
planters  themselves.6  The  vessels  from  England  worked  their  way 
up  the  river,  delivered  their  manufactured  articles,  and  loaded  with 

1  The  Case  of  the  Planters  of  Tobacco  in  Virginia,  Pamphlet,  1733. 

2  Massachusetts  Hist.  Coll.,  I.,  v.,  124  ;  Present  State  of  Virginia,  Hartwell. 

3  In  regard  to  the  mode  of  cultivating  tobacco  in  the  last  century,  see  full  ac 
counts  in  Anburey,  ii.,  344 ;  Brissot,  p.  375  ;  Weld,  pp.  116-'17 ;  Rochefoucauld,  i., 
80;  Smyth,  i.,  59. 

4  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  35  ;  Byrd  MSS.,  ii.,  9  ;  Anburey,  ii.,  314. 

5  Smyth,  ii.,  139;  Burnaby,  p.  21 ;  Abbe  Robin,  p.  110 ;  Brissot,  p.  375 ;  Jeffer 
son's  Virginia. 

6  Huguenot  Family  in  Virginia,  p.  388 ;  Smyth,  i.,  33. 

5 


66  HISTORY  OF  THE 

tobacco  at  the  planter's  own  wharf,  picking  up  a  full  cargo  by  a  suc 
cession  of  such  visits.  This  simple  and  lordly  system  had  begun  to 
decline  slightly,  but  it  was  still  maintained  very  generally  at  the  period 
of  the  Revolution.1 

By  a  gradual  process  of  elimination  we  have  seen  that,  with  the  ex 
ception  of  the  clergy  and  the  lawyers — the  latter  just  rising  into  prom 
inence  about  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century — both  numerical 
ly  small  classes,  the  people  of  Virginia  were  wholly  agricultural,  and 
further,  that  they  were  devoted  to  the  production  of  a  single  great 
staple.  It  only  remains  to  trace  the  origin  of  the  planters  to  classify 
them,  and  become  acquainted  with  their  education,  amusements,  opin 
ions,  and  daily  lives  and  occupations,  in  order  to  understand  thor 
oughly  the  Virginia  of  the  last  century. 

When  Smith  and  his  companions  landed  at  Jamestown,  the  art  of 
colonization  was  but  little  understood.  The  first  settlers  were  for  the 
most  part  idle  and  dissolute  adventurers,  attracted  solely  by  the  hope 
of  speedy  fortune ;  and  they  were  not  improved  by  the  sweepings  of 
the  London  streets,  sent  out  to  people  the  colony  and  act  as  indented 
servants,  nor  by  the  convicts,  whose  transportation  to  America  was  a 
bitter  grievance  against  the  mother  country,  down  even  to  the  Revolu 
tion.8  It  would  be  wholly  wrong,  however,  to  suppose  that  immigrants 
of  this  sort  were  a  controlling  element,  or  even  one  which  had  a  mark 
ed  effect  on  the  quality  of  the  population.  The  Virginians  sprang 
from  a  fine  English  stock.  Many  younger  sons  of  wealthy  or  noble 
families,  many  of  the  yeomanry,  and  many  of  the  merchant-class  came, 
to  Virginia.  The  Cavalier  element  predominated  after  the  great  rebel 
lion  ;  but  there  was  also  an  infusion  of  Puritans  with  their  charac 
teristic  qualities  of  strength  and  tenacity.  There  was,  in  addition,  a 
small  Huguenot  immigration,  wholly  good  in  its  results,  and  which 
was  rapidly  fused  with  the  dominant  race.3  At  the  beginning  of  the 
eighteenth  century  a  large  number  of  Scotch-Irish  Presbyterians  came 
oat,4  who,  with  Germans  from  the  middle  colonies,  pushed  out  to  the 
frontier,  and  did  much  to  open  up  the  western  country.6  Even  in 
the  aggregate,  however,  the  foreign  elements  were  small,  and  without 
effect  on  the  people,  who  may  be  accurately  described  as  thoroughly 
and  essentially  English. 

1  Sparks's  Life  of  Washington ;  Rives's  Life  of  Madison,  i.,  543. 
8  Hening,  1670.  a  F^  ^  156> 

4  Smyth,  i.,  156 ;  De  Haas,  Early  Settlement  of  West  Virginia,  p.  36. 
'  Burnaby,  p.  55  ;  Smyth,  ii.,  257-'58. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  67 

With  no  towns,  no  diversity  of  pursuits,  no  important  learned  pro 
fessions,  scarcely  any  opportunity  for  constant  and  liberalizing  social 
friction,  and  with  a  comparatively  small  population  scattered  over  a 
large  area,  much  of  which  was  still  a  wilderness,  the  structure  of  Vir 
ginian  society  was,  as  might  be  expected,  very  simple.  There  were 
four  classes  in  the  community.  The  African  slaves,  who  formed  near 
ly  one-half  of  the  population,  were  the  lowest  element ;  then,  divided 
from  the  negroes  by  the  impassable  gulf  of  race  and  blood,  came  the 
indented  servants  and  poor  whites;  then  the  middle  class  of  small 
farmers  and  planters ;  and  then  at  the  top  the  great  landlords,  who 
ruled  and  represented  Virginia.  These  divisions  were  supported  and 
maintained  by  a  strong  belief  in  social  distinctions,  and  they  increased 
in  power  and  meaning  as  they  descended.1 

Beginning  at  the  bottom  of  the  social  scale,  we  find  the  African 
slaves,  although  far  from  being,  as  they  afterward  became,  the  one 
decisive  influence  in  the  conduct  of  Virginia,  a  numerous  body,  im 
portant  to  the  material  interests  of  the  province,  and  by  their  very 
existence  producing  deep  and  lasting  effects  upon  the  character  of  the 
whole  population.  For  fifty  years  after  the  first  ill-omened  cargo  of 
human  beings  had  been  landed  at  Jamestown,  but  few  slaves  seem  to 
have  been  imported,  and  the  sparse  legislation  in  regard  to  them 
shows  that  they  formed  neither  an  important  nor  formidable  ele 
ment.11  The  only  severe  legislation  was  directed  to  the  prevention  of 
illicit  intercourse  between  the  races,  which  was  punished  by  public 
whipping  and  penance  in  church  inflicted  upon  the  guilty  white 
man.3  In  the  year  1667  it  was  declared  that  baptism  did  not  exempt 
from  bondage  ;4  and  after  this  period  legislation  becomes  rapidly  more 
stringent,  servile  rebellion  begins  to  cast  its  shadow  over  the  country, 
and  a  tone  of  dread  is  perceptible  in  the  acts  of  the  Assembly,  to  all 
of  which  the  negro  insurrection  on  the  Northern  Neck  in  1687  gave 
terrible  meaning.  From  that  time  forth  the  slave  laws  have  but  one 
quality,  that  of  ferocity  engendered  by  fear.5  It  is  only  possible  to 
give  a  bare  outline  of  this  legislation,  which  filled  many  pages  of  the 
statute-book ;  but  it  may  be  summed  up  in  a  few  words.  The  slaves 

1  In  regard  to  classes  in.  Virginia,  see  Wirt's  Life  of  Patrick  Henry,  p.  32 ;  An- 
burey,  ii.,  330 ;  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  69  ;  Smyth,  i.,  65 ;  Rives's  Life  of  Madison,  i., 
49,  78,  79 ;  compare  also  Wirt's  description  of  tenants  in  the  British  Spy. 

2  Burke,  ii.,  300  ;   Hening,  1640,  1661-'62,  1668  ;   Foote,  ii.,  155  ;  1671—2000 
negroes  in  the  colony. 

3  Hening,  1629, 1646.  4  Ibid.,  1667.  5  Burke,  ii.,  300. 


68  HISTORY  OF  THE 

had  no  rights  which  any  white  man  was  bound  to  respect.  They 
could  not  gather  at  feasts  or  burials,1  and  if  found  away  from  their 
plantation  without  a  certificate  they  received  twenty  lashes  at  the 
public  expense,  and  thirty  if  they  raised  their  hand  against  a  Chris 
tian.2  If  a  master  killed  a  resisting  slave,  it  was  no  felony,  for  no 
man  could  be  presumed  to  have  any  "malice  prepense"  in  destroying 
his  own  property.3  It  was  no  felony  to  kill  a  slave  while  correcting 
him,4  and  slaves  were  debarred  from  giving  evidence  except  at  the  trial 
of  one  of  their  own  race  for  a  capital  offence.5  If  they  fled  from 
servitude  they  were  proclaimed  by  the  Assembly  to  be  outlaws,  and 
could  then  be  killed  at  sight  by  any  one,  a  reward  being  sometimes 
offered,  or  castrated  at  the  pleasure  of  the  sheriff.  The  public  purse 
reimbursed  the  owner  if  the  slave  was  slain,  and  the  surgeon  in  the 
second  case  was  liable  in  damages  if  his  patient  died  from  the  effects 
of  the  operation.6  They  were  not  allowed  to  carry  arms,  or  even  to 
have  dogs,  and  the  officers  of  militia  were  ordered  to  search  all  negro 
huts  for  concealed  weapons.  Even  the  free  negroes  who  served  in 
the  militia  were  finally  deprived  of  this  privilege,  and  confined  to 
servile  employments  when  on  military  duty.7  Every  one  was  de 
terred  from  aiding  or  harboring  runaways  by  the  severest  penalties. 
Stealing  a  slave  was  felony  without  benefit  of  clergy,  and  was  ranked 
among  crimes  as  equivalent  to  the  murder  of  a  friendly  Indian.8 
Great  importance  was  attached  to  keeping  the  races  separate,  and 
the  dominant  class  pure  in  blood.  Any  white  man,  bond  or  free, 
marrying  a  negress,  was  to  be  banished,  and  at  a  later  period  was 
thrown  into  prison  and  fined,  while  the  officiating  clergyman  paid  a 
penalty  of  ten  thousand  pounds  of  tobacco,  nearly  a  whole  year's 
salary.9  The  doctrine  of  partus  sequitur  ventrem,  rigidly  enforced 
against  both  bastards  and  legitimate  children,  had  the  same  dividing 
tendency.10  Emancipation  was  hampered;  being  in  England  was  no 
discharge,  and  the  condition  of  free  negroes  was  little  better  than 
that  of  the  slaves.11  They  were  simply  property  in  the  eyes  of  the 
law,  and,  as  such,  were  taxed,  passed  as  chattels,  and  could  be  annexed 
to  the  land  by  the  tenant  in  tail.12  Bat  they  were  a  very  perilous  sort 
of  property,  and  their  increase  was  very  rapid  and  very  alarming, 

1  Hening,  1680.          2  Ibid.  3  Ibid.,  1669, 1723;  Foote,i.,  23. 

4  Hening,  1705.          6  Ibid.,  1732, 1744.  6  Ibid.,  1701,  1705, 1723. 

'  Ibid.,  1723, 1738, 1752, 1757.  8  Ibid.,  1670, 1732, 1748. 

9  Ibid.,  1691, 1753.  »o  ibid.,  1661-'62, 1748 ;  Foote,  i.,  23. 

11  Hening,  1668,  1691, 1748, 1762.  12  Ibid.,  1682,  1726,  1727, 1732. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  69 

especially  toward  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century.1  The  anx 
iety  thus  stimulated  was  first  expressed  in  renewed  legislation  of  the 
most  frightful  character,  which  may  be  exemplified  by  a  single  clause 
providing  that  slaves  found  abroad  at  night  without  a  license  should 
be  dismembered.8  This  repressive  movement  was  replaced  by  a  de 
sire  to  check  importation,  and  a  wish  to  ameliorate  the  condition  of 
the  negroes.  Some  of  the  most  barbarous  penalties  were  curtailed, 
better  opportunity  of  obtaining  justice  in  the  courts  was  given,  and 
slight  modifications  were  everywhere  apparent.3  The  movement  in 
this  direction  went  so  far  that  the  slave-trade  became  one  of  the 
grievances  against  England,  embodied  in  the  original  draft  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence;  and  the  ideas  of  the  Revolution  even 
led  to  projects  of  emancipation,  and  the  foundation  of  societies  for 
that  purpose.  But  even  at  this  time  the  life  of  a  black  was  held  very 
cheap.  Juries  would  not  convict  for  the  murder  of  a  slave,  and  the 
interest  in  emancipation,  which  was  languid  at  best,  after  the  close  of 
the  war  rapidly  died  away.  It  was  impossible  to  overcome  the  love 
of  luxury  and  the  commercial  value  of  slavery.*  The  ferocity  of  Vir 
ginian  slave  legislation  shows  only  too  clearly  the  manner  in  which 
the  wretched  negroes  were  regarded,  as  well  as  the  tone  and  temper 
of  the  ruling  class,  and  the  atmosphere  in  which  they  lived ;  but  it  is 
far  from  giving  a  just  notion  of  the  treatment  of  the  slaves  in  every 
day  practice.  Here  comes  in  the  broad  distinction  in  this  respect  be 
tween  Virginia  and  the  more  southern  colonies.  There  can  be  no 
question  that  Virginian  slaves  were  almost  universally  well  and  mild 
ly  treated.  They  were  fairly  clothed  and  fed.  Many  of  them  had 
gardens  and  poultry ;  and,  as  they  were  carefully  kept  in  a  state  of  the 
densest  ignorance,  it  is  not  going  too  far  to  say  that  they  were  tolera 
bly  happy  and  contented.  They  were  not  overworked,  and  both  the 
climate  and  the  methods  of  cultivating  tobacco  favored  their  well- 
being.5  It  is  in  its  effect  upon  the  character  and  habits  of  the  white 
population  that  slavery  in  colonial  Virginia  becomes  of  the  first  im 
portance  as  a  factor,  both  in  politics  and  society. 

Slave  laws,  at  first  infrequent  and  unimportant,  increased,  as  has 
been  seen,  in  number  and  stringency  as  the  colony  grew,  until  they 
occupied  a  principal  place  in  the  statute-book.  With  indented  white 

1  Huguenot  Family  in  Virginia,  p.  346.       2  Hening,  1748.       3  Ibid.,  1769, 1772. 

4  Burnaby,  p.  31 ;  Brissot,  p.  237,  249 ;  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  43. 

5  Present  State  of  Virginia,  Jones ;  Brissot,  p.  240;  Weld,  p.  114;  Abbe"  Robin, 
p.  112. 


70  HISTORY  OF  THE 

servants  the  case  was  exactly  reversed ;  they  were  in  the  beginning 
the  only  servile  and  the  principal  laboring  class.  The  influx  of  ne 
groes  reduced  them  to  insignificance,  although  their  numbers  do  not 
appear  to  have  proportionately  diminished.  As  early  as  the  year 
1623  laws  were  framed  to  compel  obedience  to  masters,1  and  for  the 
next  fifty  years  there  was  much  severe  legislation  to  regulate  the  ser 
vants.  They  were  not  allowed  to  marry  without  leave  of  their  mas 
ters  ;  if  they  ran  away,  additional  service  was  the  punishment,  and  for 
a  second  offence,  branding  on  the  cheek,  while  those  who  harbored 
them  were  subjected  to  heavy  penalties.8  If  they  came  without  indent 
ures,  they  were  to  serve  four  years,  and  years  of  service  were  added 
for  an  assault  on  their  master,  for  engaging  in  trade,  refusing  to 
work,  or,  in  the  case  of  women,  for  having  a  bastard,  unless  the  father 
was  also  the  master,  as  well  as  for  running  away.3  These  provisions 
of  the  law  enabled  grasping  masters  to  greatly  protract  the  period  of 
servitude,  and  rendered  the  condition  of  the  servants  miserable  in  the 
extreme.  The  only  protection  afforded  them  was  the  right  of  pub 
lic  burial,  and  if  their  death  was  under  suspicious  circumstances  the 
neighbors  were  to  view  the  body.4  Although  the  legislation  in  re 
gard  to  servants  disappears  almost  entirely  after  the  middle  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  the  existing  laws  remained  in  force.  An  act 
passed  in  1748  provided  that  when  a  free  person  was  liable  to  a  fine, 
a  servant  should  be  whipped ;  and  this  illustrates  their  position  as  well 
as  possible  in  the  years  prior  to  the  Revolution.6  Their  condition 
was  little  better  than  that  of  slaves.  Loose  indentures  and  harsh 
laws  put  them  at  the  mercy  of  their  masters.  They  were  coarsely 
clothed,  and  fed  upon  meal  and  water  sweetened  with  molasses,6  and 
were  frequently  punished  with  great  barbarity.  They  were,  as  a  class, 
of  very  poor  character,  for  the  most  part  transported  convicts  and 
the  scum  of  the  London  streets.  Many  were  kidnapped  as  children, 
as  the  traffic  was  lucrative ;  and  in  some  cases,  like  that  of  James  An- 
ncsley,  who  afterward  established  his  claim  to  the  Anglesea  peerage, 
they  were  shipped  to  Virginia  to  be  put  out  of  the  way,  and  die  on  a 
remote  plantation.7  In  the  seventeenth  century  they  formed  a  pict 
uresque  and  important  element  in  society,  and  were  considered  in 

Hening,  1623-'24.  a  Ibid.,  1643,  1657-1659. 

Ibid.,  1643-'67,  1696-1705, 1726,  1753. 
Ibid.,  1661-'62.  6  Ibid.,  1748. 

Anglesea  Peerage  Case,  Howell's  State  Trials,  xvii.,  1447. 
Howell's  State  Trials ;  Maxwell,  Hist.  Register,  i.,  166. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  71 

England  as  typical  Virginians.  In  this  way  they  figured  on  the  Lon 
don  stage,  and  served  as  leading  characters  in  the  novels  of  Defoe, 
who  seized  upon  the  rough  life  of  Virginia  as  a  welcome  aid  in  his 
portrayal  of  low  and  criminal  adventures.1  In  fiction  the  indented 
servant,  either  by  superior  virtue  or  superior  vice,  usually  by  the  lat 
ter,  commonly  rises  from  the  most  menial  offices  to  fortune  and  estate, 
carries  off  rich  widows,  becomes  a  successful  and  unscrupulous  attor 
ney,  a  magistrate,  perhaps  a  clergyman,  always  a  prominent  member 
of  colonial  society.*  There  were,  no  doubt,  enough  instances  of  such 
careers  to  justify  their  use  in  romance ;  but  in  the  great  majority  of 
cases,  when  the  period  of  servitude  expired  the  indented  servants  be 
came  what  were  known  as  poor  whites,  and  thus  formed,  whether 
bond  or  free,  the  lowest  class  in  the  community.  They  were  illit 
erate,  degraded,  and  despised  even  by  the  negroes.  The  presence  of 
an  inferior  and  servile  race  made  them  idle,  shiftless,  and  unenterpris 
ing.  They  never  worked  except  to  obtain  a  bare  subsistence,  and  on 
the  frontier  they  were  actually  barbarous.3  These  poor  whites  and 
the  free  negroes  formed  the  criminal  class  ;4  and  crime,  from  their  ex 
istence,  and  owing  to  the  unequal  division  of  property,  seems  to  have 
been  more  common  in  Virginia  than  in  the  other  colonies,  where  it 
was  exceptional  and  sporadic,  and  not  so  directly  attributable  to  any 
particular  portion  of  the  community.5  Criminal  offences  and  misde 
meanors  were  punished  in  Virginia,  as  elsewhere  during  that  period, 
in  a  rude  and  simple  fashion.  Murder,  rape,  arson,  and  robbery  were 
capital  crimes;  while  smaller  offences,  from  swearing  upward,  were  ex 
piated  by  fines,  lashes,  exposure  in  the  pillory  or  stocks,  imprisonment, 
and  the  ducking-stool ;  and  every  county  court  was  required  to  pro 
vide  the  appurtenances  necessary  for  these  punishments.6  In  a  society 
where  slavery  made  labor  a  mark  of  shame,  and  where  the  poor-law 
required  those  receiving  public  relief  to  wear  a  badge  of  bright  color, 
denoting  that  the  possessor  was  a  pauper,7  the  lowest  white  class  nat 
urally  gained  a  livelihood  by  dubious  and  dishonest  as  well  as  preca 
rious  methods.  Besides  these  darker  qualities  of  ignorance  and  crime 

1  Mrs.  Behn,  the  Widow  Ranter ;  Defoe,  Moll  Flanders  and  Captain  Jack. 

2  Ibid. ;  and  see  also  "  The  Life  and  Character  of  a  Monster  lately  arrived  in 
London,"  Tract,  1726. 

3  Anburey,  ii.,  309-333;  Meade,  i.,  366 ;  Memoirs  of  Count  Fersen,  i.,  63;  Roche' 
foucauld,  i.,  69. 

4  Meade,  i.,  366.      5  Brissot,  p.  374.       6  Hening,  1671, 1705, 1727, 1745, 1748. 
1  Ibid.,  1755 ;  compare  as  to  poor-laws  at  a  later  time,  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  27. 


72  HISTORY  OF  THE 

these  people  were  also  illiberal,  narrow-minded,  prying,  and  inquisitive.1 
Their  only  good  qualities  seem  to  have  been  an  easy  temper,  and  much 
real  good-nature  and  hospitable  feeling.  They  were  fortunately  few  in 
number,  and  were  perfectly  unimportant  both  socially  and  politically. 
They  were  the  turbulent  element  of  Virginian  life,  and  figured  prom 
inently  in  the  crowds  which  gathered  at  the  horse-race,  the  hustings, 
or  the  sessions  of  the  county  court.  They  hung  about  the  taverns 
drinking  and  gambling,  and  on  all  festive  occasions  engaged  in  single 
combats,  and  sometimes  general  battles.8  Their  fighting  was  not  sim 
ply  with  the  fists,  but  included  the  brutal  practice  of  "  gouging."  A 
northern  man  entering  Virginia  from  Maryland  rescued  a  fellow-trav 
eller  from  the  hands  of  a  native  who  had  sworn  he  would  "  try  the 
strength  of  his  eye-strings."  When  he  reached  Hanover  Court-house, 
he  found  an  election  in  progress,  and  the  usual  crowd  assembled.  He 
was  immediately  invited  to  "  swap  horses  and  watches,"  narrowly  es 
caped  a  fight,  and  had  the  pleasure  of  witnessing  a  gouging-match. 
One  of  the  combatants  succeeded  in  getting  a  twist  in  the  side-locks 
of  his  adversary,  and  then  pressed  his  thumb  against  the  eyeball  of 
his  opponent,  who  bawled  out  "King's  cruse  "  (enough),  and  the  pleas 
ing  match  terminated  without  mutilation,  although  so  tame  an  ending 
was  by  no  means  the  rule.8  This  is  a  fair  picture  of  the  lowest  class 
of  Virginians — rude,  noisy,  brawling,  drinking  fellows,  very  lazy,  and 
sometimes  criminal ;  but  with  a  redeeming  dash  of  generous  and  hos 
pitable  good-nature.* 

It  is  not  easy  to  distinguish  between  the  two  remaining  classes  in 
Virginian  society.  The  middle  class,  beginning  with  the  tradesmen 
and  merchants,  rose  gradually  through  the  farmers  and  small  planters, 
until  it  merged  imperceptibly  in  the  ranks  of  the  great  landholders. 
The  differences  between  the  middle  and  upper  classes  were  of  de 
gree,  not  of  kind.  Both  were  of  sound  English  stock.  Both  were 
landholders  and  slave-owners  in  a  greater  or  less  degree,5  and  marriages 
served  constantly  to  unite  them  more  closely  by  the  ties  of  blood. 
This  does  not  apply  to  the  trading  portion  of  the  middle  class,  who 
were  regarded  with  great  contempt  by  the  owners  of  lands  and  slaves, 
who  esteemed  trade  a  mark  of  inferiority,  and  an  occupation  unsuited 

1  Smyth,  i.,71 ;  Michaux's  Travels,  p.  194 ;  Anburey,  ii.,  333. 
8  Anburey,  ibid. ;  Weld,  p.  142. 

8  Memoirs  of  Elkanah  Watson,  1777,  p.  32 ;  see  also  the  excellent  description  of 
similar  scenes  in  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  64. 
4  Smyth,  i.,  68.  •  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  69. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  73 

to  a  man  of  birth  and  position.1  The  majority,  however,  of  the  mid 
dle  class  were  yeomen  and  farmers.  A  writer  long  resident  in  the 
country  describes  their  daily  life  as  follows :  "  A  man  in  this  line  rises 
in  the  morning  about  six  o'clock ;  he  then  drinks  a  julep  made  of 
rum,  water,  and  sugar,  but  very  strong ;  then  he  walks,  or  more  gener 
ally  rides,  round  his  plantation,  views  all  his  stock  and  all  his  crops, 
breakfasts  about  ten  o'clock,  on  cold  turkey,  cold  meat,  fried  hominy, 
toast,  and  cyder,  ham,  bread-and-butter,  tea,  coffee,  or  chocolate,  which 
last,  however,  is  seldom  tasted  but  by  the  women  ;  the  rest  of  the  day 
he  spends  much  in  the  same  manner  as  a  man  of  the  first  rank,  only 
cyder  supplies  the  place  of  wine  at  dinner,  and  he  eats  no  supper ; 
they  never  even  think  of  it."2 

This  was  the  daily  life  of  the  men  who  formed  the  great  mass  of 
the  white  population  of  Virginia.  They  were  good  specimens  of  the 
nationality  to  which  they  belonged,  and  were  a  fine,  sturdy,  manly  race, 
aristocratic  in  feeling,  and  from  the  ownership  of  slaves  despotic  in 
temper;  but  they  were  earnest  in  the  maintenance  of  English  liberty. 
They  lacked  polish  of  manner,  and  were  sadly  deficient  in  education 
and  knowledge  of  the  world,  but  were  without  exception  generous 
and  hospitable.  Their  families  were  less  ancient  and  respectable  than 
those  of  the  first  rank ;  but  they  often  acquired  large  fortunes,  and 
the  successful  ones  worked  their  way  to  the  top  in  the  course  of  a  few 
generations.  They  were  attached  to  gaming  and  all  sorts  of  rude 
sports,  and  roughness  was  in  them  always  oddly  mingled  with  gentler 
qualities.3  Such  was  the  vigorous  class  of  genuine  English  stock 
which  gave  strength,  support,  and  political  power  to  the  great  planters 
who  ruled  and  represented  Virginia,  and  imparted  tone  and  color  to 
the  whole  of  her  society. 

This  upper  class  was  Virginia,  and  the  rest  of  the  people  were 
merely  modifications  of  the  type  or  simple  appendages.  These  great 
planters  were  country  gentlemen,  not  in  the  modern  sense,  but  in  that 
of  the  eighteenth  century.  Many  of  them,  no  doubt,  closely  resem 
bled  the  famous  Squire  Western  of  Fielding,  and  none  of  them  dif 
fered  in  any  essential  particular,  except  a  more  intense  pride,  from  the 
English  country  gentlemen  of  the  same  period.  Their  origin  has  al 
ready  been  described,  and  the  next  step  is  to  understand  their  educa 
tion,  and  the  influences  which  surrounded  them  in  boyhood  and  youth. 

The  means  of  education  were  sadly  deficient.     In  the  early  days 

1  Soldier  and  Pioneer,  Anderson.          2  Smyth,  i.,  41.  8  Ibid.,  pp.  66,  67. 


74  HISTORY  OF  THE 

worthy  people  in  England  had  been  profoundly  impressed  with  the 
necessity  of  Christianizing  the  Indians,  and  under  this  impulse  money 
was  subscribed  for  a  college  in  Henrico  parish,  an  institution  which 
was  actually  started,  when  the  great  massacre  swept  it  out  of  exist 
ence.  The  East  India  school  was  started  at  the  same  time,  under  sim 
ilar  auspices,  and  met  the  same  fate.1  In  the  year  1660  there  was 
a  movement  in  favor  of  a  college,  owing  to  the  low  condition  of  the 
clergy ;  and  in  the  following  year  provision  was  made  for  such  an 
institution,  and  land  was  set  apart  by  the  Assembly.  This  solitary 
attempt  came  to  nothing,  and  the  fate  of  like  efforts  on  the  part  of 
public-spirited  individuals  was  equally  unfortunate.2  It  is  probable 
that  there  was  little  or  no  education  of  any  sort  at  that  period  in 
Virginia.  An  old  tract  refers  vaguely  to  "  a  free  school  and  petty 
schools,"  but  they  must  have  been  of  the  rudest  kind.  The  govern 
ment  was  generally  lukewarm  toward  education,  and  the  Stuart  gov 
ernors  were  distinctly  hostile.8  Sir  William  Berkeley,  in  1671,  de 
clared  that  every  man  instructed  his  children  according  to  his  ability, 
and  gave  thanks  to  God  that  there  were  no  free  schools  in  Virginia, 
and  no  probability  of  any  for  a  hundred  years  to  come.4  This  amia 
ble  prediction  was  substantially  verified.  The  untiring  exertions  and 
manly  persistence  of  Blair  succeeded  in  obtaining  a  charter  for  the 
college  of  William  and  Mary  in  1692,  and  in  establishing  it  on  a  firm 
foundation,  despite  the  friendly  remark  of  Seymour,  the  attorney-gen 
eral,  who  said  to  the  Virginian  applicants  for  a  charter,  when  they 
urged,  as  a  reason  for  the  higher  education,  the  salvation  of  souls  by 
the  clergy,  "  Souls !  Damn  your  souls,  grow  tobacco."  But  the  col 
lege  was  all.  There  is  no  indication  in  the  statutes  of  any  desire 
to  provide  education,  and  no  system  of  public  schools  was  even  at 
tempted  before  1776.5 

In  the  years  prior  to  the  Revolution  education  in  Virginia  was  at 
as  low  an  ebb  as  can  well  be  imagined.  In  childhood  the  young  Vir 
ginian  was  brought  up  among  the  slaves  and  their  offspring,  which 
had  the  worst  possible  effect  upon  both  speech  and  manners,6  and  the 

Meade,  i.,  84. 

Ibid.;  Foote,  i.,  11 ;  Jones,  Present  State  of  Virginia.  There  were  renewed 
efforts  at  a  much  later  time.  Hening,  l753-'56. 

Tyler's  Hist,  of  American  Literature,  i.,  90.  4  Foote,  i.,  11. 

Hening ;  and  see  also  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  48. 

Life  of  Arthur  Lee,  i.,  11, 12 ;  Georgia  Hist.  Coll.,  Itinerant  Observations,  1745, 
p.  48. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  To 

only  resource  for  the  first  years  of  education  was  in  the  grammar  or 
country  schools  conducted  by  the  parish  minister,  or  by  a  freed  ser 
vant.1  The  principal  branches  of  study  were  English  grammar,  alge 
bra,  surveying,  and  navigation ;  but  the  quality  of  the  instruction  was 
poor  in  the  extreme,  and  the  schools  themselves  were  scarce.8  In 
some  of  the  more  fortunate  parishes  the  clergyman  possessed  real  at 
tainments  and  a  classical  library,  and  received,  as  tutor,  the  sons  of  the 
wealthy  planters.3  In  many  instances,  too,  the  boys  studied  at  home ; 
but  it  is  to  be  feared  that  in  all  cases  the  discipline  was  slack,  and 
that  many  young  Virginians  resembled  Patrick  Henry  in  giving  more 
time  to  hunting  and  fishing  than  to  their  books.4  The  meagre  school 
ing  received  by  Washington  was  a  not  uncommon  example  of  the 
education  of  young  men  even  of  good  family.  In  the  middle  and 
lower  classes  only  the  barest  rudiments  were  taught,  and  those  very 
badly.  Early  in  the  eighteenth  century  the  Bishop  of  London  ad 
dressed  a  series  of  questions  to  the  Virginian  clergy.  One  of  them 
was,  "  Are  there  any  schools  in  your  parish  ?"  The  uniform  answer, 
with  but  two  exceptions,  was,  **  None."  Another  question  was,  "  Is 
there  any  parish  library  ?"  All  the  clergy  replied,  "  None,"  except 
one,  who  answered,  "  We  have  the  Book  of  Homilies,  the  Whole 
Duty, of  Man,  and  the  Singing  Psalms."6 

After  such  preliminary  training  as  these  trifling  opportunities  of 
fered,  the  young  Virginian,  when  his  parents  could  afford  it,  was  sent 
to  William  and  Mary,  or  to  England,  to  complete  his  education.  The 
college  founded  by  Blair  prospered  for  many  years  under  his  ener 
getic  rule  as  president,  and  did  much  good  ;  but  during  the  eighteenth 
century  it  steadily  degenerated,  falling  under  the  same  evil  influences 
which  ruined  the  Church.  The  officers  were  a  president  and  six  pro 
fessors,  all  poorly  paid,  and  there  was  a  library  of  some  three  thou 
sand  volumes  (a  large  collection  for  that  day),  and  a  cabinet  for  ex 
periments  with  philosophical  apparatus.  The  Indian  department  had 
proved  an  utter  failure.  Courses  were  given  in  the  classics,  moral 
philosophy,  metaphysics,  mathematics,  and  divinity.6  At  the  close  of 
the  old  French  war  instruction  had  fallen  to  a  low  point.  The  pro- 

1  Maxwell,  Hist.  Reg.,  iii.,  142;  Georgia  Hist.  Coll.,  Itinerant  Observations,  1745, 
p.  48. 

a  Jones,  Present  State  of  Virginia ;  Meade,  ii.,90;  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  105. 

3  Foote,  i.,  55.  4  Soldier  and  Pioneer,  Anderson.  *  Meade,  i.,  190. 

6  Burnaby,  p.  30 ;  Smyth,  p.  65  ;  Abbe  Robin,  p.  107 ;  Maxwell,  Hist.  Reg.,  p.  67 ; 
Georgia  Hist.  Coll.,  p.  48. 


76  HISTORY  OF  THE 

fessors  were  incompetent,  and,  in  some  cases,  of  dissolute  lives.  The 
students  were  unrestrained  and  disorderly,  and  the  vicious  transatlan 
tic  patronage,  and  the  old  useless  endowments  were  ruinous  in  their 
effects.1  At  the  time  of  the  Revolution  the  college  was  little  more 
than  a  poor  grammar-school,  sustained  by  an  occasional  professor  who 
chanced  to  be  worthy  of  his  place. 

Many  rich  Virginians,  especially  younger  sons  who  desired  a  pro 
fessional  training,  went  to  England ;  but  they  fared  little  better  than 
their  brothers  who  stayed  at  home,  and  brought  back  quite  as  much 
vice  as  book-learning.  The  viciousness  of  foreign  education  became, 
indeed,  so  well  recognized  that  planters  were  deterred  from  sending 
their  sons  abroad.3  There  were,  of  course,  men  like  Colonel  Byrd  of 
Westover,  who  was  educated  in  England,  was  a  friend  of  Charles 
Boyle,  Earl  of  Orrery,  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  the  Middle  Temple, 
and,  having  travelled  in  the  Low  Countries  and  figured  at  the  Court  of 
France,  came  back  to  make  the  most  of  all  the  advantages  of  his  Eu 
ropean  training.3  Byrd  was,  as  it  happened,  a  man  of  real  talent,  and 
left  the  only  writings  produced  in  colonial  Virginia  which  have  gen 
uine  literary  merit  and  skill.  But  there  were  others,  like  Arthur  Lee, 
who  profited  greatly  by  study  at  English  and  Scotch  universities,  and 
it  cannot  be  doubted  that  there  were  many  members  of  the  ruling 
class  who  were  liberally  educated,  and  showed  the  results  in  their  read 
ing  and  tastes.4  Still  these  were  the  exceptions.  The  mass  of  Vir 
ginians  were  not  well  educated,  and  depended  much  more  on  mother- 
wit,  of  which  they  had  an  abundant  portion,  than  on  any  acquired  ad 
vantages  for  their  success  in  life.6 

To  the  recipients  of  this  education  the  one  serious  occupation  of 
existence,  after  school  and  college  had  been  passed,  was  the  care  of 
their  estates.  To  promote  the  growth  of  tobacco,  to  attend  to  the 
sale  of  his  crop,  to  import  the  necessary  implements  and  the  desired 
luxuries,  and  to  bring  up  a  sufficient  number  of  his  negroes  to  useful 
trades,  were  the  chief  employments  of  the  Virginian  gentleman.  His 
public  duties  were  to  act  as  vestryman  and  justice  of  the  peace,  to 
hold  court,  and  sit  in  the  House  of  Burgesses,  and  in  some  cases  to 
serve  in  the  militia,  or  as  an  officer  of  the  Crown  in  the  civil  service. 

1  Meade,  i.,  175,  note,  and  if. ;  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  25 ;  Life  of  Jefferson,  Parton, 
or  Randall. 

'  Governor  Page  was  kept  at  home  on  this  account ;  Meade,  i.,  147, 190 ;  ii.,  90; 
Maxwell,  Hist.  Reg.,  in.,  142.  *  Byrd  MSS.,  i.,  11.  4  Smyth,  i.,  65. 

•  Jones,  Present  State  of  Virginia ;  Dawson's  Hist.  Mag.,  iv.,  218. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  77 

To  such  lives  were  the  sons  bred  up  ;  while  the  mother  and  daughters 
of  the  household  were  entirely  occupied  with  domestic  affairs.  End 
less  needle-work,  the  training  of  negro  maids,  and  the  charge  of  the 
house,  filled  the  days  of  Virginian  women. 

The  style  of  living  was  one  of  reckless  profusion  and  indiscriminate 
hospitality.  The  latter  quality  was  fostered  by  circumstances.  Even 
in  the  seventeenth  century  the  custom  of  receiving  strangers  was  so 
prevalent  that  it  became  a  subject  of  legislation.  "  They  shall  be  re 
puted  to  entertayne  those  of  curtesie,"  says  the  statute,  "  with  whom 
they  make  not  a  certain  agreement,"1  and  the  habit  grew  with  the  col 
ony.  Gentlemen  were  wont  to  send  to  the  neighboring  tavern  and 
invite  any  stranger  home  to  stay  as  long  as  he  pleased,2  and  no  trav 
eller  described  his  wanderings  without  recording  his  obligations  to 
the  generous  hospitality  of  the  Virginian  planters.3 

This  unstinted  welcome  to  strangers  was  due  in  some  measure  to 
the  isolation  and  monotony  of  life.  The  early  settlers  spread  them 
selves  over  the  land,  clearing  plantations  here  and  there  in  the  wilder 
ness,  and  this  custom  was  always  adhered  to.  The  plantations  fol 
lowed  the  rivers,  which  formed  for  many  years  the  only  means  of  com 
munication  with  the  outer  world.  This  was  slow  and  circuitous  at 
best ;  but,  although  ferries,  bridges,  and  bridle-paths  were  established 
at  an  early  period,4  travel  was  difficult,  and  even  dangerous,  all  through 
the  eighteenth  century.6  Roads  winding  along  the  rivers  were  grad 
ually  opened,  and  were  sufficiently  good  in  fair  weather ;  but  they 
passed  through  dense  forests  broken  only  at  intervals  of  four  or  five 
miles  by  a  plantation,8  and  wayfarers  were  frequently  lost  and  obliged 
to  pass  the  night  in  the  woods,  even  in  the  most  settled  parts  of  the 
country  and  in  the  immediate  neighborhood  of  towns.7  Bridges  were 
scarce,  and  the  deep  and  frequent  rivers  were  crossed  usually  in  rick 
ety  boats,  or  by  swimming,  which  resulted  in  fatigue  and  danger  to 
the  travellers,  and  great  loss  of  horses  swept  away  in  the  current.8 
Public  coaches  and  post-chaises  were  unknown.  Every  one  travelled 

Foote,  i.,  10;  Hening,  1661-'62,  1667.  2  Rochefoucauld,  ii.,  70. 

Huguenot  Family,  p.  271 ;  Rochefoucauld,  ii.,  117 ;  Smyth,  i.,  65. 
Hening,  1643  ;  Foote,  i.,  10. 
Present  State  of  Virginia,  Hartwell. 

Jones,  Present  State  of  Virginia ;  Beverly ;  Anburey,  ii.,  300 ;  Rochefoucauld, 
121 ;  Smyth,  i.,  15  ;  Georgia  Hist.  Coll.,  Itinerant  Observations,  1745. 
Weld,  p.  77. 
Ibid.,  p.  128  ;  Huguenot  Family,  p.  271. 


78  HISTORY  OF  THE 

on  horseback  or  in  small  sulkies,  while  the  middle  classes  contented 
themselves  with  the  cart  and  farm  horses.1 

The  difficulty  of  travel,  and  the  hospitality  of  the  planters  to  the 
few  who  journeyed  through  the  country,  prevented  any  improvement 
in  the  taverns,  or  ordinaries,  as  they  were  commonly  called.  Here  and 
there  in  the  towns  a  good  inn  could  be  found ;  but  in  the  country,  and 
especially  in  the  back  districts,  the  public-houses  were  wretched,  often 
mere  huts,  affording  only  a  shelter  from  the  weather.8  There  were 
plenty  of  them,  however,  such  as  they  were ;  but  they  were  used  not 
by  travellers,  but  by  the  natives  as  places  of  resort  for  drinking  and 
gaming,  and  had  such  a  bad  effect  that  many  acts  were  passed  for  the 
restraint  of  "  tippling-houses,"  as  the  Burgesses  saw  fit  to  style  them.* 

The  taverns,  however,  were  probably  the  most  uncomfortable  habi 
tations  in  the  province.  The  homes  of  the  Virginians,  varying  greatly 
with  the  social  position  of  the  occupant,  were,  as  a  rule,  comfortable. 
In  the  towns  the  houses  were  of  wood  for  the  poorer  classes,  while 
the  better  ones  were  large,  and  built  of  brick.4  In  Norfolk  they  were 
commonly  built  of  Dutch  brick,  with  thick  walls  and  large  chimneys 
at  each  end,  and  the  more  expensive  structures  were  handsomely  wain 
scoted  within  in  hard  woods.6  In  the  country  wood  prevailed  in 
building.  The  homes  of  the  lower  classes  were  mean  and  small.8 
Those  of  the  middle  classes  and  small  farmers,  likewise  of  wood,  were 
larger  and  more  convenient.  They  were  all  low,  generally  of  one  story, 
with  a  loft-roof,  and  invariably  built  with  two  enormous  chimneys, 
one  at  either  end,  an/,  outside  the  house,  which  gave  a  picturesque  ap 
pearance  to  these  sim^e  and  even  rude  dwellings.  The  poorer  ones 
were  neither  lathed  noi  plastered,  had  wooden  chimneys  lined  with 
clay,  and  wooden  shutters  <done  to  protect  the  openings  for  light  and 
air.  The  better  sort  were  plastered  and  painted,  and  possessed  brick 
chimneys  and  glass  windows,  but  the  furniture  was  simple.  The  beds 
were  good,  but  uncurtained ;  and  homely  wooden  stools  took  the  place 
of  cane  chairs.7 

The  houses  of  the  ruling  and  representative  class  were  very  differ 
ent  from  those  of  the  great  majority  of  Virginians.  When  the  trav- 

Meade,  i.,  19  ;  Anburey,  H.,  63  ;  Smyth,  i.,  59. 

Anburey,  ii.,  303  ;  Rochefoucauld,  ii.,  93  ;  Smyth,  i.,  16,  50. 

Georgia  Hist.  Coll.,  Itinerant  Observations,  1745  ;  Hening,  1644,  1668,  1748. 

Jones,  Present  State  of  Virginia. 

Forrest,  Historical  and  Descriptive  Sketches  of  Norfolk. 

Rochefoucauld,  ii.,  23.  '  Smyth,  i.,  49;  Huguenot  Family,  p.  265. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  79 

eller  came  to  one  of  the  widely  separated  gaps  in  the  forest  and  found 
himself  upon  the  borders  of  a  great  plantation,  the  estate  presented 
the  appearance  of  a  small  village.  In  the  centre  stood  the  house  of 
the  planter,  around  which  were  clustered  the  offices,  all  separate  from 
the  main  building,  the  tobacco-houses,  and  the  numerous  huts  of  the 
negro  quarters.  In  the  fields  the  slaves  were  seen  sawing  wood  and 
making  clearings,  or  cultivating  tobacco.  Not  far  away  the  herds  of 
cattle  were  at  pasture,  and  the  whole  scene  recalled  an  English  farm.1 

The  houses  of  the  planters  varied,  of  course,  greatly  with  the  taste 
of  the  occupants.  Some  were  of  wood,  with  massive  timbers,  and  the 
typical  outside  chimney.8  Many  were  of  brick,  and  others  still  of  cut 
stone.  Some  were  low  and  picturesque,  while  others  piled  one  story 
upon  another  as  in  the  great  Page  house  at  Rosewell,  and  towered 
above  the  trees  in  bare  and  tasteless  masses.  All,  however,  were  spa 
cious,  with  large,  low  rooms,  panelled  and  wainscoted  in  hard  woods, 
and  rejoicing  in  great  fireplaces,  where  wood  fires  blazed,  and  over  which 
were  sometimes  carved  the  armorial  bearings  of  the  family.  These 
great  houses,  with  their  narrow  windows,  diamond  panes,  and  tall 
chimneys,  rising  in  the  midst  of  estates  of  great  natural  beauty,  strong 
ly  resembled  the  manor-houses  of  England,  and  were  often  furnished 
with  a  substantial  elegance  not  unworthy  of  the  mother  country.3 

The  houses  indicate  fairly  enough  the  extravagance  and  profusion 
of  the  Virginia  planter,  induced  by  the  easily  acquired  wealth  result 
ing  from  the  sale  of  tobacco  raised  by  low-priced  slaves.  The  con 
stant  fluctuations  in  the  price  of  the  great  staple  tended  to  increase 
extravagance  of  living,  and  give  a  tone  of  reckless  speculation  to  all 
affairs  of  business  and  money-making.  An  amount  of  style  was  main 
tained  strangely  at  variance  with  the  ignorance  of  the  people,  and  the 
isolated  and  commonly  solitary  lives  of  the  planters.  The  most  marked 
display  was  in  carriages  and  horses,  due,  in  some  measure,  no  doubt, 
to  the  fact  that  there  were  no  other  means  of  getting  from  place  to 
place ;  but  owing  still  more  to  the  fondness  for  show  and  the  love  of 


1  Anburey,  ii.,  287;  Weld,  p.  114;  Beverly;  Smyth,  i.,  15;  Chateaubriand, 
(Euvres,  torn,  vii.,  Voyage  en  Amerique,  1791,  p.  16. 

3  Anderson, Soldier  and  Pioneer;  Weld, p.  119. 

3  "  My  Ride  to  the  Barbecue,"  Description  of  Gates's  House ;  Beverly ;  Meade, 
i.,  331, Rosewell;  Anburey,  ii.,  319,  Randolph  House  at  Tuckahoe;  Weld,  p.  113, 
119 ;  Smyth,  i.,  15,  Country-seats  on  the  James  River ;  p.  27,  Carter  Estate  at  Shir 
ley  Hundred ;  p.  146,  Estates  on  Potomac  ;  Byrd  MSS.,  ii.,  59,  Spotswood  House 
at  Germanna. 


80  HISTORY  OF  THE 

horse-racing.  Coaches,  chariots,  and  chaises  were  all  in  common  use.1 
In  the  year  1739  Colonel  Spotswood  advertises  for  sale  "his  coach, 
chariot,  chaise,  and  coach-horses ;"  and  the  chariot  is  described  as  hav 
ing  been  "looked  upon  as  one  of  the  best  made,  handsomest,  and 
easiest  chariots  in  London."  Every  planter  had  his  stud,  including 
fine  coach-horses,  hunters,  and  racers;  many  had  famous  stallions,  and 
great  attention  was  paid  to  breeding.8  In  every  great  house  there  was 
a  handsome  service  of  plate,  and  the  table  was  bountiful,  although 
chiefly  supplied  by  the  products  of  the  plantation.3  All  articles  of 
apparel  were  imported  and  costly ;  but,  nevertheless,  both  men  and 
women  dressed  handsomely,  and  in  the  height  of  the  English  fashion. 
A  good  deal  of  this  splendor  was  crude  and  rough.  "  It  is  a  mis 
erable  luxury,"  said  Brissot,  the  famous  Girondin ;  "  they  wear  silk 
stockings  and  boots;"  and  again  he  says,  speaking  of  the  showy 
dresses  of  the  women,  "  It  is  a  poor  luxury  of  high  prices."4  In  many 
houses,  where  the  tables  were  bountifully  spread,  and  masses  of  old 
plate  graced  the  sideboards,  there  were  windows  broken  ten  years  be 
fore,  and  still  unmended,  buildings  out  of  repair,  and  only  the  stables 
in  good  condition.5  Even  the  fine  coach-horses,  on  which  they  prided 
themselves,  were  not  always  carefully  matched.6  The  planters  lived  on 
their  noble  estates,  and  kept  open  house  with  the  splendor  and  afflu 
ence  of  nabobs,7  in  the  midst  of  retinues  of  slaves  and  studs  of  horses ; 
but  their  magnificence  had  a  certain  barbaric  element,  was  unfinished 
and  incomplete,  and  showed  here  and  there  ragged  edges  and  coarse 
linen  beneath  its  brocaded  silks.  Ready  money  was,  moreover,  very 
scarce,  despite  the  apparent  wealth,  and  luxuries  had  to  be  paid  for. 
The  result  was  debt ;  and  it  seems  as  if  the  leading  families  must  have 
gone  through  bankruptcy  once  in  a  generation.  The  folly  of  building 
great  houses  brought  many  estates  to  the  hammer.8  High  living  and 
play  ruined  others;  and  many  young  heirs  were  forced  to  the  frontier 
to  begin  a  new  career.9  Legislation  favored  the  debtor  class.  During 
a  "stint"  in  the  tobacco  crop  debtors  were  to  pay  only  two-thirds  of 
their  debts,  a  little  later  it  was  enacted  that  money  debts  were  not 
recoverable ;  and  as  early  as  the  year  1657  an  approach  was  made  to  a 

1  Hening,  1720, 1762.        2  Anburey,  ii.,  320 ;  Brissot,  p.  373  ;  Smyth,  i.,  21,  66. 
1  Smyth,  ibid. ;  Burnaby,  p.  43  ;  Anburey,  it,  293  ;  Burke,  in.,  265 ;  Hist.  Doa 
relating  to  South  Carolina,  Young's  Letters  ;  Huguenot  Family,  p.  265. 

4  Brissot,  pp.  367,  373  ;  Georgia  Hist.  Coll.,  Itinerant  Observations,  1745,  p.  48. 

5  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  117 ;  Smyth,  i.,  27.         8  Georgia  Hist.  Coll.,  p.  48. 

7  Memoirs  of  Elkanah  Watson,  p.  32.          8  Meade,  i.,  332.       8  Foote,  i.,  149. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  81 

bankruptcy  act  by  relieving  poor  debtors  on  a  surrender  of  their  prop 
erty.1  As  time  went  on  the  habit  of  running  in  debt  increased.  Phy 
sicians  could  not  collect  their  fees ;  a  lawsuit  was  necessary  for  trades 
men  to  recover  payment  for  their  goods.  Lands  were  declared  by 
law  not  liable  to  seizure,  and  in  regard  to  slaves  and  personal  prop 
erty  the  creditor  was  easily  evaded.  In  an  agricultural  communi 
ty,  headed  by  a  small  body  of  land-owning  country  gentlemen,  the 
financial  integrity  so  essential  to  the  very  existence  of  a  trading 
people  was  almost  unknown.8  And  so  the  extravagance  and  osten 
tation,  the  generous  hospitality,  and  the  high  living  and  running 
in  debt,  went  on,  and  the  Virginians,  for  the  most  part,  lived  in 
a  chronic  state  of  insolvency,  and  borrowed  money  at  most  extortion 
ate  rates  of  interest,  and  were  withal  very  happy,  and  jovial,  and  con 
tented.8 

The  home  life  of  the  Virginian  gentleman  was  one  of  easy  monot 
ony.  An  observant  traveller  has  left  a  detailed  account  of  their  every 
day  existence  and  habits. 

"  The  gentleman  of  fortune  rises  about  nine  o'clock ;  he  may,  per 
haps,  make  an  excursion  to  walk  as  far  as  his  stable  to  see  his  horses, 
which  is  seldom  more  than  fifty  yards  from  his  house ;  he  returns  to 
breakfast  between  nine  and  ten,  which  is  generally  tea  or  coffee,  bread- 
and-butter,  and  very  thin  slices  of  venison,  ham,  or  hung-beef.  He 
then  lies  down  on  a  pallet  on  the  floor,  in  the  coolest  room  in  the 
house,  in  his  shirt  and  trousers  only,  with  a  negro  at  his  head  and  an 
other  at  his  feet,  to  fan  him  and  keep  off  the  flies ;  between  twelve 
and  one  he  takes  a  draught  of  bombo,  or  toddy,  a  liquor  composed  of 
water,  sugar,  rum,  and  nutmeg,  which  is  made  weak  and  kept  cool ; 
he  dines  between  two  and  three,  and  at  every  table,  whatever  else  there 
may  be,  a  ham  and  greens,  or  cabbage,  is  always  a  standing  dish.  At 
dinner  he  drinks  cider,  toddy,  punch,  port,  claret,  and  madeira,  which 
is  generally  excellent  here;  having  drank  some  few  glasses  of  wine 
after  dinner,  he  returns  to  his  pallet,  with  his  two  blacks  to  fan  him, 
and  continues  to  drink  toddy,  or  sangaree,  all  the  afternoon ;  he  does 
not  always  drink  tea.  Between  nine  and  ten  in  the  evening  he  eats  a 
light  supper  of  milk  and  fruit,  or  wine,  sugar,  and  fruit,  etc.,  and  al 
most  immediately  retires  to  bed  for  the  night. 

"  This  is  his  general  way  of  living  in  his  family,  when  he  has  no 

1  Hening,  1640, 1643, 1645, 1657.  2  Rochefoucauld,  ii.,  39. 

8  Burnaby,  pp.  31,  33. 


82  HISTORY  OF  THE 

company.  No  doubt  many  differ  from  it,  some  in  one  respect,  some 
in  another ;  but  more  follow  it  than  do  not."1 

This  description  may  have  been  drawn  from  an  extreme  case ;  but 
the  author  had  abundant  opportunities  and  is  supported  by  sober 
Burnaby,  who  remarks  with  surprise  that  he  had  seen  a  man  in  the 
full  vigor  of  life  lying  on  a  couch  with  a  negress  standing  by  to  keep 
off  the  flies.2  That  they  were  self-indulgent  in  other  ways,  high  livers, 
and  often  hard  drinkers,  is  the  testimony  of  all  the  contemporary  au 
thorities,  native  and  foreign.8  The  plantations  were  managed,  as  a  rule, 
by  overseers,4  and,  except  a  brief  and  feverish  interest  in  the  tobacco 
crop,  there  was  nothing  in  their  occupations  to  break  the  indolent 
tranquillity  of  existence. 

The  domestic  life  of  the  Virginian  lady  was  more  monotonous,  even 
if  her  time  was  better  employed,  than  that  of  the  men.  A  letter  quoted 
by  Bishop  Meade5  says,  "  Let  us  repair  to  the  old  lady's  room  (Mrs. 
Washington's),  which  is  precisely  in  the  style  of  our  good  old  aunt's — 
that  is,  nicely  fixed  for  all  sorts  of  work.  On  one  side  sits  the  cham 
ber-maid  with  her  knitting;  on  the  other,  a  little  colored  pet,  learning 
to  sew.  An  old  decent  woman  is  there  with  her  table  and  shears,  cut 
ting  out  the  negroes'  winter  clothes,  while  the  old  lady  directs  them 
all,  incessantly  knitting  herself."  In  these  pursuits,  managing  the 
house,  training  the  servants,  and  working  for  the  benefit  of  the  whole 
establishment,  the  lives  of  Virginian  women  were  passed.  They  were 
notable  house-keepers,  and  good  wives  and  mothers.  They  were  both 
virtuous  and  agreeable,6  and  intrigues  and  love  affairs  seem  never  to 
have  been  in  vogue.  We  hear  of  slave  mistresses,7  but  never  of  the 
gallantries  then  in  fashion  in  Europe.  Burnaby  has  left  an  account 
of  the  life  of  the  Virginian  ladies  which,  although  very  much  colored 
by  English  prejudices,  is  not  without  interest. 

"The  women  (of  Virginia)  are,  upon  the  whole,  rather  handsome, 
though  not  to  be  compared  with  our  fair  countrywomen  in  England. 
They  have  but  few  advantages,  and  consequently  are  seldom  accom 
plished  ;  this  makes  them  reserved  and  unequal  to  any  interesting  or 
refined  conversation.  They  are  immoderately  fond  of  dancing,  and, 
indeed,  it  is  almost  the  only  amusement  they  partake  of ;  but  even  in 

1  Smyth,  i.,  41.  3  Burnaby,  p.  156. 

3  Burnaby,  pp.  3 1,43;  Jones,  Pres.  State  of  Virginia;  Anburey,ii.,293;  Burke,iii., 
265  ;  Memoirs  of  Count  Fersen,  i.,  63 ;  Hist.  Doc.  relating  to  South  Carolina, Young's 
Letters  ;  and  compare  account  of  John  Boiling  in  Dawson's  Hist.  Mag.,  iv.,  218. 

4  Weld,  p.  114.        •  i.,  98.        c  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  117.        *  Anburey,  ii.,  342. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  83 

this  they  discover  great  want  of  taste  and  elegance,  and  seldom  ap 
pear  with  that  gracefulness  and  ease  which  these  movements  are  so 
calculated  to  display.  Toward  the  close  of  an  evening,  when  the  com 
pany  are  pretty  well  tired  with  country-dances,  it  is  usual  to  dance 
jigs;  a  practice  originally  borrowed,  I  am  informed,  from  the  ne 
groes.  The  Virginian  ladies,  excepting  these  amusements,  and  now 
and  then  a  party  of  pleasure  into  the  woods  to  partake  of  a  barbacue, 
chiefly  spend  their  time  in  sewing  and  taking  care  of  their  families."1 
This  description  gives  us  a  glimpse  of  the  simple  amusements 
which  served  to  break  the  level  of  daily  life.  A  dance  in  the  evening, 
when  some  young  neighbor,  possibly  Patrick  Henry,  or  Thomas  Jef 
ferson,  came  to  the  hospitable  house,  ready  to  play  on  the  violin,  or, 
perhaps,  a  picnic  in  the  woods,  were  the  best  diversions  afforded  in  the 
solitude  of  the  country.  The  great  event  was  the  annual  visit  on 
business  or  pleasure,  or  both,  to  Williamsburg.  Once  a  year,  when 
the  House  of  Burgesses  met,  and  the  Supreme  Court  was  in  session, 
the  great  coaches  were  brought  out  on  the  plantations,  the  six  horses 
were  harnessed,  and  the  leading  families  drove  in  state  to  the  capital. 
There  the  fashionable  world  of  Virginia  assembled.  They  spoke  of 
their  annual  gathering  with  all  the  simple  and  ludicrous  pride  of  a 
provincial  aristocracy  as  rivalling  the  Court  of  St.  James  and  the  so 
ciety  of  London.  Sources  of  interest  and  excitement  were  not  lack 
ing  during  the  season.  If  politics  ran  high,  as  in  the  years  when 
revolution  was  preparing,  society  could  gather  at  the  capitol  and  listen 
to  the  classic  oratory  of  Richard  Henry  Lee,  or  the  fervid  speeches  of 
Patrick  Henry,  dressed  in  his  suit  of  peach-blossom  velvet,  and  defy 
ing  King  George,  to  the  great  alarm  of  the  conservative  land-owning 
gentry.3  Perhaps  the  event  of  the  year  was  the  inauguration  of  a 
new  governor ;  and  glowing  accounts  are  extant  of  the  pomp  and  pa 
rade  which  greeted  Lord  Botetourt,  and  of  the  feasting  and  the  loyal 
ty  which  hailed  his  entry  into  office.3  At  all  times  the  season  at 
Williamsburg  was  gay.  English  fashions  prevailed,  and  the  officers 
of  the  Crown  did  much  to  promote  social  enjoyment.  The  Governor 
gave  balls  in  his  palace,  as  it  was  the  fashion  to  term  his  house,  and 
the  birthnights  of  majesty  were  celebrated  with  great  rejoicing.  There 
were  regular  assemblies,  and  two  sets  of  races  for  subscription  purses 
were  given  annually.4  In  the  gayeties  of  Williamsburg  both  sexes 

1  Burnaby,  p.  36.  fl  Wirt's  Life  of  Patrick  Henry,  p.  90. 

3  Burke,  iii.,  342.  *  Jones,  Present  State  of  Virginia;  Smyth,  i.,  20. 


84  HISTORY  OF  THE 

shared ;  but  the  season  was  short,  and  the  ladies  relapsed  into  the  rou 
tine  of  daily  plantation  existence  after  a  brief  holiday.  The  men  were 
more  fortunate,  and  made  up  for  their  indolence  in  regard  to  work  by 
a  surprising  activity  in  play.  Their  amusements  were  such  as  might 
be  expected  in  a  rural  society  of  considerable  wealth  and  compara 
tively  slight  education.  Horse-racing  and  race  balls  were  the  events, 
and  fox-hunting,  cock-fighting,  drinking,  and  card-playing  the  regular 
pastimes.  A  contemporary  sermonizer,  with  some  severity,  says  of 
the  Virginians,  "  To  eat  and  drink  delicately  and  freely ;  to  feast,  and 
dance,  and  riot ;  to  pamper  cocks  and  horses ;  to  observe  the  anxious, 
important,  interesting  event  which  of  two  horses  can  run  fastest,  or 
which  of  two  cocks  can  flutter  and  spur  most  dexterously ;  these  are 
the  grand  affairs  that  almost  engross  the  attention  of  some  of  our 
great  men,  and  little  low-lived  sinners  imitate  them  to  the  utmost  of 
their  power.  The  low-born  sinner  can  leave  a  needy  family  to  starve 
at  home,  and  add  one  to  a  rabble  at  a  horse-race  or  a  cock-fight.  He 
can  get  drunk,  and  turn  himself  into  a  beast  with  the  lowest  as  well 
as  his  betters  with  more  delicate  liquors."1  Even  the  partial  Burke 
admits,  that  "  The  character  of  the  people  for  hospitality  and  excess, 
and  those  of  the  land  proprietors,  particularly  on  the  banks  of  rivers, 
enabled  them  to  indulge  their  passions  even  to  profusion  and  excess. 
Drinking  parties  were  then  fashionable,  in  which  the  strongest  head 
or  stomach  gained  the  victory.  The  moments  that  could  be  spared 
from  the  bottle  were  devoted  to  cards.  Cock-fighting  was  also  fash 
ionable.  I  find,  in  1747,  a  main  of  cocks  advertised  to  be  fought 
between  Gloucester  and  James  River.  The  cocks  on  one  side  were 
called  'Bacon's  Thunder-bolts,'  after  the  celebrated  rebel  of  1676."2 
But  fortunately  there  has  been  preserved  an  exact  account  of  the 
sports  in  which  all  classes  then  indulged. 

In  the  Virginia  Gazette  for  October,  1737,  we  read:  "  We  have  ad 
vice  from  Hanover  County,  that  on  St.  Andrew's  Day  there  are  to  be 
Horse  Races  and  several  other  Diversions,  for  the  entertainment  of 
the  Gentlemen  and  Ladies,  at  the  Old  Field,  near  Captain  John  Bick- 
erton's,  in  that  county  (if  permitted  by  the  Hon.  Wm.  Byrd,  Esquire, 
Proprietor  of  said  land),  the  substance  of  which  is  as  follows,  viz. : 
4  It  is  proposed  that  20  Horses  or  Mares  do  run  round  a  three  miles' 
course  for  a  prize  of  five  pounds. 

"  *  That  a  Hat  of  the  value  of  20*.  be  cudgelled  for,  and  that  after 

1  Campbell,  p.  495.  a  Burke,  iii.,  402. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  85 

the  first  challenge  made  the  Drums  are  to  beat  every  Quarter  of  an 
hour  for  three  challenges  round  the  Ring,  and  none  to  play  with  their 
Left  hand. 

"  *  That  a  violin  be  played  for  by  20  Fiddlers ;  no  person  to  have 
the  liberty  of  playing  unless  he  bring  a  fiddle  with  him.  After  the 
prize  is  won  they  are  all  to  play  together,  and  each  a  different  tune, 
and  to  be  treated  by  the  company. 

"'That  12  Boys  of  12  years  of  age  do  run  112  yards  for  a  Hat  of 
the  cost  of  12  shillings. 

"'That  a  Flag  be  flying  on  said  Day  30  feet  high. 

"  *  That  a  handsome  entertainment  be  provided  for  the  subscribers 
and  their  wives ;  and  such  of  them  as  are  not  so  happy  as  to  have 
wives  may  treat  any  other  lady. 

" '  That  Drums,  Trumpets,  Hautboys,  &c.,  be  provided  to  play  at 
said  entertainment. 

" '  That  after  dinner  the  Royal  Health,  His  Honor  the  Governor's, 
&c.,  are  to  be  drunk. 

"  *  That  a  Quire  of  ballads  be  sung  for  by  a  number  of  Songsters, 
all  of  them  to  have  liquor  sufficient  to  clear  their  Wind  Pipes. 

"  *  That  a  pair  of  Silver  Buckles  be  wrestled  for  by  a  number  of 
brisk  young  men. 

"  *  That  a  pair  of  handsome  Shoes  be  danced  for. 

" '  That  a  pair  of  handsome  silk  Stockings  of  one  Pistole  value 
be  given  to  the  handsomest  young  country  maid  that  appears  in  the 
Field.  With  many  other  Whimsical  and  Comical  Diversions  too  nu 
merous  to  mention. 

" '  And  as  this  mirth  is  designed  to  be  purely  innocent  and  void  of 
offence,  all  persons  resorting  there  are  desired  to  behave  themselves 
with  decency  and  sobriety ;  the  subscribers  being  resolved  to  dis 
countenance  all  immorality  with  the  utmost  rigor.' " 

These  were  rough,  honest  English  sports,  whose  very  names  sound 
strange  now,  but  much  better  than  the  card-playing  and  cock-fighting. 
Such  amusements  prevailed  everywhere.  At  Norfolk  a  fair  was  held 
at  regular  intervals  in  the  market-place,  accompanied  by  sack  and  hogs 
head  races,  greased  poles,  and  bull-baiting.3  At  Assateague  the  great 
event  of  the  year  was  the  horse-penning,  when  the  wild  colts  were 
driven  in,  and  the  whole  country-side  flocked  to  see  the  show,  and 

1  Quoted  in  Rives's  Life  of  Madison,  i.,  87. 

2  Forrest's  Hist.  Sketches. 


86  HISTORY  OF  THE 

join  in  the  expected  barbecue  and  dancing.1  Public  events  in  Eng 
land  were  commemorated  in  Virginia  with  vast  show  and  much  loyal 
effusion.  The  battle  of  Culloden  was  celebrated  by  processions,  car 
rying  a  child  in  a  warming-pan,  hanging  and  burning  the  Pretender 
in  effigy,  and  by  public  balls  and  illuminations.8  In  fine  weather 
barbecues  in  the  woods,  when  oxen,  pigs,  and  sturgeon  were  roasted, 
were  frequent,  and  much  enjoyed  by  all,  ending  usually,  among  the 
lower  classes,  with  much  intoxication.3  Another  great  source  of  de 
light  was  the  cock-fight.  The  pit  was  placed  in  the  centre  of  the 
square  formed  by  the  two  or  three  houses  of  the  nearest  village,  and 
at  an  early  hour  the  road  was  alive  with  carriages  and  pedestrians  on 
their  way  to  see  the  match.  All  classes  crowded  eagerly  together 
about  the  pit,  where  the  fine  cocks  gave  great  sport.4  It  was  the 
same  at  races  and  fox-hunts.  The  isolation  of  their  daily  lives  drove 
men  to  seek  every  occasion  for  meeting.  The  small  farmers  assem 
bled  at  the  nearest  tavern  to  play  billiards  and  drink.5  The  session 
of  the  court  filled  the  county  towns  once  a  month  with  a  large  and 
miscellaneous  crowd,  whose  great  topics  of  conversation  were  horses 
and  lawsuits,  and  a  day  of  conviviality  generally  ended  with  fights 
of  a  rather  savage  character.6  Duelling  does  not  seem  to  have  been 
common,  and  was  probably  rendered  fashionable  by  our  French  allies.7 
In  colonial  times  differences  were  usually  settled  by  the  more  prim 
itive  fist.  The  evil  of  all  these  meetings,  and  the  bane  of  Virginian 
society,  was  drinking  and  gaming,  especially  the  latter,  which  was  car 
ried  to  a  frightful  extent  by  all  classes.  We  can  trace  the  growth  of 
this  evil  in  the  laws.  Statutes  were  passed  against  gaming ;  and  a  pen 
alty  was  exacted  from  innkeepers  who  permitted  it;  it  was  forbidden 
on  race-fields ;  gambling  debts  were  declared  void,  and  private  lotteries 
were  suppressed  as  harmful  to  the  morals  of  the  people."  But  legis 
lation  was  vain.  The  genial,  dissolute,  free -thinking  Fauquier,  who 
gathered  about  his  table  the  rising  genius  of  Virginia  —  Jefferson, 
Wythe,  Mason,  and  the  like — was  a  devotee,  and  a  ruined  one,  to  high 
play.  The  great  Byrd  fortune  was  probably  but  one  of  many  dissi 
pated  at  the  gaming-table.  Gambling  was  rife  among  all  ranks  of 
society,  and  was  the  fascination  and  excitement  on  every  occasion.9 

Howe's  Virginia.  2  Forrest's  Hist.  Sketches ;  Howe's  Virginia. 

Weld,  p.  140.  4  Memoirs  of  Elkanah  Watson,  1787. 

Rochefoucauld,  ii.,  21.  *  Michaux,  p.  194 ;  Anburey,  ii.,  333. 

Abb6  Robin,  p.  182.  8  Hening,  1744,  1748,  1769. 

Anburey,  ii.,  328 ;  Brissot,  p.  373 ;  Burke,  iii.,  333 ;  Weld,  p.  142 ;  Rochefou 
cauld,  ii.,  39;  Michaux,  p.  194 ;  Byrd  MSS.,  ii.,  77. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  87 

In  a  society  so  constituted,  and  so  much  addicted  to  the  amuse 
ments  just  described,  intellectual  pursuits  of  any  kind  found  little 
room.  Fauquier,  with  all  his  gambling  and  high  living,  was  a  patron 
of  arts  and  literature,  but  he  found  little  of  either  to  encourage  in 
Virginia.1  There  were  no  arts,  and  the  literature  was  next  to  nothing. 
During  the  whole  colonial  period  only  three  books  were  produced  by 
natives  of  the  country  which  rose  above  the  level  of  statistical  or  po 
litical  tracts  and  occasional  sermons.  Robert  Beverly  beguiled  the 
leisure  of  a  country  gentleman  by  writing  an  inaccurate  but  not  unin 
teresting  history  of  the  province,  and  the  Rev.  William  Stith  followed 
his  example  with  an  exact  and  very  dull  account  of  the  early  years 
of  the  settlement.  The  third  Virginian  author  was  Colonel  Byrd, 
whose  rambling  memoirs  and  journal  of  his  doings  as  a  commissioner 
to  run  the  North  Carolina  boundary -line  exhibit  strong  powers  of 
observation,  great  humor,  and  possess  genuine  literary  merit.  Such 
was  the  literature  of  Virginia.  That  it  was  so  very  meagre  is  not  to 
be  wondered  at  when  we  remember  that  it  was  after  the  Restoration 
that  the  Cavalier  Berkeley  gave  thanks  to  God,  not  only  that  there 
were  no  schools,  but  that  there  was  no  printing-press  in  Virginia,  and 
no  prospect  of  any.  It  was  not  until  1736  that  the  first  newspaper, 
the  Virginia  Gazette,  appeared,  and  this  remained  for  many  years  the 
only  journal  in  the  colony.3  The  first  theatre  was  opened  at  Wil- 
liamsburg  in  1752,  for  a  company  of  New  York  comedians;  so  that 
the  drama  at  the  period  of  the  Revolution  was  of  very  recent  date.3 
Intercourse  with  the  outer  world  was  extremely  limited.  The  first 
general  post-office  was  established  in  1692-'93  ;  but  it  was  local  in  its 
operation  and  very  expensive.4  Its  sphere  was  gradually  enlarged ;  yet 
even  in  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  a  mail  from  the  North 
a  fortnight  old,  and  a  post  to  the  South  once  a  month,  both  conduct 
ed  by  individuals,  were  considered  expeditious  and  very  convenient.6 

English  classics  and  a  few  of  the  standard  authors  of  the  day  form 
ed  the  resources  of  those  who  read.  Blair's  "  Sermons,"  Sterne's 
works,  The  Spectator,  the  "  Whole  Duty  of  Man,"  and  Tillotson's 
"  Sermons,"  were  the  books  most  in  use.6  In  a  private  library  at 
Yorktown  were  found  the  "  History  of  England,"  a  collection  of  char 
ters  and  bills,  the  works  of  Pope,  Essays  of  Montaigne,  "Gil  Bias," 
and  an  essay  on  Women  by  "  Mr.  Thomas,"  which  last,  we  are  told, 

1  Burke,  iii.,  401.  *  Ibid.,  Hi.,  125.  3  Ibid. 

4  Hening,  1692-'93.          6  Maxwell's  Hist.  Register,  i.,  67.          f  Meade,  i.,  25. 


88  HISTORY  OF  THE 

had  a  great  popularity  in  all  the  colonies.1  Such  reading  was  good 
so  far  as  it  went,  but  it  was  not  extensive,  and  it  is  to  be  feared  that 
the  Virginians  were  not  much  given  to  reading,  nor  to  the  sister  art  of 
writing.  Governor  Spotswood,  who  was  not  slow  to  take  every  advan 
tage  of  the  Burgesses  in  their  many  controversies,  remarked  on  one  oc 
casion,  in  an  official  reply  to  some  remonstrance:  "I  observe  that  the 
grand  ruling  party  in  your  House  has  not  furnished  chairmen  of  two 
of  your  standing  committees  who  can  spell  English  or  write  com 
mon-sense,  as  the  grievances  under  their  own  handwriting  will  man 
ifest."8  Matters  no  doubt  improved  in  this  respect  during  the 
eighteenth  century ;  but,  even  in  the  years  prior  to  the  Revolution, 
Virginians,  as  a  rule,  read  little  and  studied  less,3  if  we  except  the 
young  and  rising  men  who  belonged  to  the  new  period  then  just  be 
ginning. 

Although  the  intellectual  resources  were  slender,  the  Virginian  gen 
tlemen  had,  apart  from  merely  physical  amusements,  one  subject  of 
abiding  interest.  As  has  already  been  mentioned,  they  absorbed  all 
the  appointed  offices  of  the  State,  and  they  also  participated  actively 
and  steadily  in  current  politics.  After  some  fluctuations  during  the 
period  of  the  English  Commonwealth,  the  suffrage  had  been  restricted 
to  freeholders,  and  finally  to  those  owning  fifty  acres  of  land.4  Im 
migrants  were  naturalized  at  first,  after  a  term  of  years,  on  taking  the 
oaths  of  allegiance  and  supremacy ;  then  by  act  of  the  Assembly ; 
then  by  the  Governor  on  application ;  and,  finally,  by  the  Assembly 
on  petition.5  The  suffrage,  therefore,  was  enough  of  a  privilege  to  be 
desired,  and  its  exercise  was  further  enforced  by  law.6  Voting  was 
oral,  and  if  the  poll  was  not  concluded  on  the  first  day,  it  was  adjourn 
ed  by  the  sheriff.7  The  leading  planters  usually  stood  for  the  House, 
and  election  day  was  one  of  the  great  occasions  similar  to  court  day ; 
all  the  people  poured  into  the  polling-place,  where  there  was  the  cus 
tomary  drinking  and  gaming,  and  many  rough  scenes.  The  candi 
dates  were  obliged  on  this  day  of  the  year  to  unbend  and  mingle 
with  the  crowd.  They  were  compelled  to  treat  their  constituents, 
and  sometimes  walked  about  with  a  can  of  grog,  asking  the  free  and 

Abbe  Robin,  p.  142 ;  compare  also  Burke,  Hi.,  400. 

Tyler's  Hist,  of  Amer.  Literature,  1715-'80,  i.,  88 ;  Campbell,  p.  395. 

Jones's  Present  State  of  Virginia. 

Burke,  ii.,  108  ;  Foote,  i.,  13  ;  Hening,  1655, 1762. 

Hening,  1667, 1670-'80, 1705 ;  and  see  petitions  of  later  years. 

Hening,  1769.  T  Ibid.,  1646, 1769. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.        ..  89 

independent  electors  to  drink  with  them.1  It  was  a  good  school  of 
practical  politics,  even  if  somewhat  rough,  and  the  excitement,  rude 
as  it  must  have  been,  was  not  without  zest  to  the  participants. 

The  society  which  was  organized  in  this  way,  and  lived  after  this 
fashion,  gave  little  opportunity  for  the  growth  of  the  democratic  sen 
timent.  There  was  none  of  the  friction  and  stimulus  afforded  by 
large  towns.  There  was  no  intercourse  with  the  outside  world 
through  the  channels  of  commerce.  The  people  were  scattered,  and 
wholly  agricultural.  The  large  number  of  convicts,  of  bonded  ser 
vants,  and  of  negroes  helped  to  brand  very  deeply  the  lines  of  de 
marcation  between  the  different  members  of  the  community.  The 
solitary  life  on  a  great  plantation  in  the  midst  of  inferiors  and  slaves, 
the  system  of  primogeniture,  and  the  importance  attached  to  landed 
estates  as  the  only  form  of  wealth,  all  contributed  powerfully  to  one 
result.  Theoretically,  an  aristocracy  should  have  been  developed,  and 
it  is  easy  to  show  that  it  existed  as  really  as  if  the  members  had  been 
distinguished  by  titles.  In  a  word,  Virginian  society  developed  into 
an  aristocracy  of  commoners,  but  none  the  less  into  a  genuine  aris 
tocracy.  The  most  powerful  support  was  given  by  the  system  of 
entail.  No  estate  tail  over  two  hundred  pounds  was  defeasible  with 
out  an  act  of  the  Assembly,  and  the  entailed  estate  passed,  of  course, 
invariably  to  the  eldest  sons,  while  the  younger  ones  were  brought  up 
to  professions.  In  some  cases  land  was  settled  on  the  'younger  chil 
dren,  but  the  bulk  of  the  property  went  to  the  oldest  son.  In  the 
middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  legislation  was  largely  concerned 
with  land,  and  was  strongly  in  the  land -holding  interest;  but  the 
drift  of  public  opinion  then  began  to  set  against  it,  the  business  of 
docking  entails  increased  rapidly,  and,  finally,  the  whole  system  fell 
during  the  Revolution  beneath  the  attacks  headed  by  Jefferson.2 
Prior  to  that  time,  however,  it  flourished  in  full  force,  and  formed, 
as  primogeniture  and  entail  always  must,  the  surest  foundation  of  a 
strong  and  permanent  aristocracy. 

Scattered  allusions  also  curiously  illustrate  the  purely  aristocratic 
society  of  Virginia,  of  which  the  existence  is  proved  by  the  law  of 
entail.  The  early  law  in  regard  to  well-born  persons  has  already  been 
adverted  to,  but  there  is  much  stronger  and  later  evidence.  A  letter 


1  Rives's  Life  of  Madison,  i.,  179  ;  Foote,  ii.,  177. 

2  Howe's  Virginia ;  Maxwell's  Hist.  Register,  Hi.,  142 ;  Hening,  1727, 1748 ;  and 
from  1764  to  1773  for  the  business  of  docking  entails. 


90  HISTORY  OF  TEE 

is  preserved,  by  Bishop  Meade,  from  one  Mr.  Thompson,  a  clergyman 
of  the  best  sort,  who  desired  to  marry  the  widow  of  Governor  Spots- 
wood.  The  family  objected  on  the  score  of  inferiority  of  social  posi 
tion.  The  letter  begins  as  follows:  "Madam, — By  diligently  perus 
ing  your  letter  I  perceive  there  is  a  material  argument,  which  I  ought 
to  have  answered,  upon  which  your  strongest  objection  against  com 
pleting  my  happiness  would  seem  to  depend,  viz.,  that  you  would  in 
cur  the  censures  of  the  world  for  marrying  a  person  of  my  station 
and  character.  By  which  I  understand  that  you  think  it  a  diminution 
of  your  honor  and  the  dignity  of  your  family  to  marry  a  person  in  the 
station  of  a  clergyman."  Then  follows  a  curious  piece  of  reasoning 
to  show  the  social  equality  of  clergy  and  gentry.1 

The  social  distinctions  were  most  rigidly  observed  in  the  churches, 
where  all  classes  of  necessity  met  together.  One  vestryman  was  pub 
licly  thanked  for  displacing  an  unworthy  woman  who  had  ventured 
to  sit  above  her  degree."  The  great  families  occupied  the  principal 
pews,  generally  in  the  galleries,  while  the  floor  was  common  to  all.3 
In  some  of  the  churches  certain  pews  were  set  apart,  and  marked 
"  Magistrates  "  and  "  Magistrates'  Ladies."4  It  is  related  of  the  Car 
ter  family  that  they  built  the  parish  church,  reserving  a  large  pew 
near  the  chancel,  and  that  on  Sunday  the  congregation  waited  outside 
until  the  family  arrived,  and  then  followed  them  in.5  A  member  of 
a  similar  family  "  was  buried,  according  to  her  own  directions,  beneath 
the  pavement  of  the  aisle  of  that  wing  of  the  church  which  was  oc 
cupied  by  the  poor.  She  directed  this  to  be  done  as  an  act  of  self- 
abasement  for  the  pride  she  had  manifested  and  the  contempt  she 
had  exhibited  toward  the  common  people  during  her  life,  alleging  that 
she  wished  them  to  trample  upon  her  when  she  was  dead."8  The  old 
records  abound  also  in  examples  of  the  state  kept  by  the  old  families. 
A  servile  class  rendered  labor  a  shame,  and  trade  was  despised.  It 
was  esteemed  a  disgrace  for  a  young  man  to  enter  the  counting-house 
of  the  first  merchant  in  Virginia.7  The  planters  looked  upon  them 
selves  as  of  different  clay  from  the  rest  of  the  community.  One  of 
them  drives  his  sword  into  a  billiard-marker,  but  no  notice  is  taken 
of  it,  although  the  man  barely  escapes  death.8  One  foreign  traveller 
says  that  every  proprietor  would  be  a  lord,  and  that  they  had  every 

1  Meade,  ii.,  79  ;  see  p.  13.  9  Ibid.,  i.,  366.  8  Ibid,  i.,  210;  ii.,  376. 

4  Maxwell,  Hist.  Register,  v.,  38.      6  Meade,  ii.,  116.        6  Ibid.,  ii.,  412. 
7  Fersen,  i.,  63 ;  Anderson,  Soldier  and  Pioneer ;  Anburey,  ii.,  293. 
"  Rochefoucauld,  ii.,  40. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  91 

aristocratic  principle.  They  took  great  pride  "  in  his  majestie's  an 
cient  and  great  colony  and  dominion  of  Virginia  ;m  and  one  of  them 
declares  that "  Virginia  may  be  justly  esteemed  the  happy  retreat  of 
true  Britons  and  true  Churchmen.""  But,  although  they  held  all  the 
offices,  their  fortunes  were  not  wrapped  up  in  the  royal  government. 
Their  loyalty  was  as  independent  as  it  was  zealous,  but  with  no  tinge 
of  inferiority ;  and  they  would  not  even  suffer  any  attempt  to  in 
troduce  an  etiquette  other  than  their  own.3  There  were  few  Tories 
among  them,  and  while  they  gave  freely  to  government,  they  chafed 
at  the  duties  and  restrictions  on  trade.4 

They  had  the  vices  and  the  virtues  of  an  aristocracy.  They  were 
indolent,  vain,  and  imperious;  politically  haughty,  and  sensitive  to 
any  restraint.6  They  were  neither  enterprising  nor  inventive,  but 
their  address  was  excellent ;  they  spoke  well  and  fluently  ;  had  excel 
lent  sense,  and  much  shrewdness  in  matters  of  business.6  Many  of 
them  were  men  of  liberal  sentiments,  enlightened  understanding,  and 
knowledge  of  the  world.7 

Leading  a  life  which  alternated  between  intense  bodily  activity 
and  the  most  profound  indolence,  addicted  to  coarse  indulgences  and 
rough  sports,  without  the  opportunity  or  desire  for  mental  effort,  the 
Virginian  gentleman  was  still  essentially  a  patrician.  As  proud  of 
his  acres,  and  as  haughty  among  his  dependents  as  the  greatest  Eng 
lish  lords,  the  Virginian  was  as  sensitive  in  regard  to  his  rights  and 
as  jealous  of  his  political  position  as  any  Puritan  of  New  England. 
A  rigid  code  of  honor  was  scrupulously  preserved,  and  every  gentle 
man  was  accountable  under  it  for  his  actions.  The  Virginian  planter 
was  proud  of  his  descent.  He  knew  by  heart  his  own  genealogy  and 
that  of  all  his  neighbors.  No  peer  of  the  realm  more  fully  believed 
himself  to  be  of  a  different  stuff  from  other  mortals  than  the  Virgin 
ian.  Burke's  famous  sentence  describes  them  exactly :  "  Those  who 
had  been  accustomed  to  command  were  the  last  who  would  consent 
to  obey."  Despite  the  indolent  life,  the  boorish  amusements,  and  the 
too  prevalent  illiteracy,  the  natural  genius  of  the  great  planters  was 
strong  and  sound.  They  looked  on  themselves  as  the  governing  class, 
as  the  natural  leaders  of  the  people,  and  they  possessed  an  unquestion 
ed  supremacy.  When  the  shock  came,  they  proved  themselves  fine 

.—  —  -.,—.—,..— — ......  ^  ^ 

1  Heuing,  1699.        *  Jones,  Present  State  of  Virginia,        3  Burke,  iii.,  376. 

4  Howe's  Virginia;  Burnaby,  p.  35.  6  Burnaby,  pp.  31,35. 

6  Jones,  Present  State  of  Virginia ;  Abbe  Robin,  p.  205-'6.  7  Smyth,  i.,  65. 


92  HISTORY  OF  THE 

soldiers,  sagacious  politicians,  great  lawyers,  and  statesmen.  Out  of 
this  apparently  inert  aristocracy,  steeped  as  it  would  seem  in  pride 
and  sloth,  came  a  set  of  leaders  who  have  done  the  greatest  honor 
to  the  American  name.  All  the  stress  of  oppression  and  of  war  was 
required  to  rouse  the  latent  life ;  but  at  the  great  period  in  our  his 
tory,  the  Virginian  aristocracy  proved  themselves  worthy  of  the  fore 
most  places.  The  ruling  class  was  small  numerically ;  but  a  body 
which  produced  in  one  generation  George  Washington,  John  Marshall, 
Thomas  Jefferson,  Patrick  Henry,  and  James  Madison,  to  say  nothing 
of  the  Lees,  the  Randolphs,  the  Pendletons,  Wythe,  Mason,  and  the 
rest,  is  one  which  deserves  a  great  position  not  only  in  the  history  of 
fche  United  States,  but  in  that  of  the  English  race  and  of  the  world. 


ENGLISH  COLON  08  IN  AME8ICA.  93 


CHAPTER  III. 

MARYLAND  FROM  1632  TO  1765. 

THE  colonial  history  of  Maryland  offers  two  points  of  especial  in 
terest.  Maryland  was  the  first  proprietary  government  in  America, 
and  she  lays  claim  to  the  distinction  of  having  been  the  first  state 
where  religious  toleration  not  only  prevailed  in  practice,  but  was  es 
tablished  by  law.  These  two  facts,  their  causes  and  results,  and  the 
questions  growing  out  of  them,  not  only  form  the  staple  of  her  colo 
nial  history,  but  give  it  all  the  interest  it  possesses.  From  their  nat 
ure,  too,  they  are  closely  connected  with  the  characters  and  careers  of 
the  founder  of  the  settlement  and  his  successors.  They  present,  also, 
the  first  instance  in  America  of  a  colony  upon  which  the  influence  of 
an  individual  left  an  abiding  mark,  and  did  much  to  shape  its  future 
history. 

George  Calvert,  Baron  of  Baltimore,  began  his  public  career  under 
the  patronage  of  Robert  Cecil.  His  talents  and  industry  united  with 
a  quiet  moderation  of  character  and  a  wise  discreetness  to  raise  him, 
under  James  I.,  to  the  office  of  Secretary  of  State,  and  to  the  position 
of  a  leader  of  the  government  forces  in  the  House  of  Commons.  In 
an  evil  hour  he  resisted  Buckingham,  or  was,  at  least,  unlucky  enough 
to  stand  in  the  way  of  the  all-powerful  favorite.  George  Calvert  was 
too  prudent  a  man  to  persist  in  such  an  opposition,  and,  proclaiming 
himself  a  Catholic,  he  resigned  his  office.  For  this  loss  of  place  he 
was  consoled  by  a  peerage  and  a  fee  of  £6000,  paid  him  by  his  suc 
cessor.  Like  most  of  the  men  in  James's  Court,  Calvert  had  a  taste 
for  money-getting,  without  being  troubled  by  unfashionable  scruples ; 
but  he  differed  from  his  fellow  -  courtiers  in  his  ability  to  keep  the 
riches  he  acquired.  From  an  early  period  Calvert  had  been  interested 
in  schemes  of  colonization,  and  in  a  purely  commercial  way.  He  was 
one  of  the  patentees  of  the  Virginia  Company,  and  subsequently  re 
ceived  a  large  grant  of  territory  in  Newfoundland.  His  religious 


94  HISTORY  OF  THE 

opinions,  or  rather  the  period  of  his  conversion  to  Catholicism,  have 
been  matters  of  warm  discussion ;  but  the  most  recent  investigations 
make  it  probable  that  Calvert  was  either  born  a  Catholic,  or  became 
one  at  an  early  period  of  his  life.  The  old  and  generally  accepted 
story  that  he  resigned  the  secretaryship  on  account  of  scruples  of 
conscience,  arising  from  his  recent  conversion  to  Rome,  can  no  longer 
be  sustained.  Whatever  else  is  doubtful,  it  is  certain  that 
Calvert  was  forced  out  of  office  by  Buckingham ;  and  the 
avowal  of  the  religion  he  had  long  secretly  professed  served  as  a  con- 
venient  cloak  to  the  real  reasons  for  his  retreat.  That  Calvert  con 
cealed  his  religious  opinions  for  a  long  number  of  years,  is  in  perfect 
keeping  with  his  character  and  career.  The  court  of  James  I.  was 
not  the  place  for  a  sternly  religious  man  of  hostile  faith  to  obtain 
worldly  success.  When  Calvert,  now  Lord  Baltimore,  found  himself 
deprived  of  office,  he  turned  his  thoughts  to  his  colony  of  Ferryland, 
in  the  province  of  Avalon,  in  Newfoundland,  whither  he  soon  after 
proceeded  with  his  family.  In  that  inhospitable  region  he  quickly 
perceived  the  impossibility  of  successful  colonization,  and  in 
1628,  therefore,  he  sailed  to  the  South,  and  landed  in  Virginia. 
His  purpose  was  an  obvious  one — the  foundation  of  a  settlement  in 
a  country  blessed  with  a  more  genial  climate  than  that  which  he  had 
left.  The  Virginians  tendered  to  him,  on  his  arrival  among  them,  the 
oath  of  allegiance,  which  he  took,  and  the  oath  of  supremacy,  which 
he  refused ;  and  he  was  then  requested  to  depart  the  colony,  as  he 
would  not  acknowledge  the  King's  prerogatives.  The  objects  of 
Lord  Baltimore  were  as  plain  to  the  Virginians  as  they  are  to  us. 
He  was  no  ordinary  colonist,  nor  were  his  schemes  those  of  even  the 
richest  planters.  He  came  to  found  a  state,  and  to  be  its  ruler.  The 
Virginians  had  gone  too  far,  and  were  too  numerous  to  pass  under  his 
control,  nor  would  they  voluntarily  permit  the  erection  of  an  impe- 
rium  in  imperio.  Courteously  but  firmly  they  dismissed  Lord  Bal 
timore,  and  hastened  his  departure.  He  returned  to  England  and 
again  visited  Ferryland,  where  he  did  good  service  against  the  French ; 
but  the  remembrance  of  the  Virginian  country  did  not  leave  him, 
and  in  1632  he  drew  a  charter  for  the  signature  of  Charles  L, 
granting  to  himself  and  his  heirs  all  'the  country  included  in 
the  present  State  of  Maryland,  and  a  large  part  of  what  is  now  the 
State  of  Delaware.  Before  this  charter  passed  the  seals  Lord  Balti 
more  died.  From  what  is  known  of  his  career,  it  appears  that  in 
politics  he  was  a  friend  of  high  prerogative,  and  a  complaisant  court- 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  95 

ier  in  a 'corrupt  court;  that  in  religion  he  was  a  moderate  Catholic, 
and  in  general  character  a  shrewd,  discreet  man  of  the  world.  Of 
such  a  man  worldly  wisdom  and  good  management  in  both  public 
and  private  affairs  could  be  safely  predicated ;  but  it  was  not  from 
such  persons  that  liberal  views  emanated  in  the  reign  of  James  I. 
Subservient  to  the  slightest  wishes  of  the  King  and  to  the  will  of 
Buckingham,  Calvert  was  not  the  man  to  have  far-sighted  plans  and 
high-minded,  enlightened  views  of  religious  toleration.  As  a  Catholic, 
he  appreciated  fully  the  bitter  English  hostility  to  Rome,  and  there 
can  be  little  doubt  that  he  desired  his  provinces  to  be  peopled  with 
men  of  his  own  belief,  and  to  become  in  a  certain  sense  an  asylum 
for  English  Papists.  But  his  primary  object  was  commercial  and 
financial  success,  and  he  well  knew  that  nothing  papistical  could 
thrive  under  English  auspices.  The  merest  whisper  of  Catholic  dom 
ination  would  have  wrecked  his  enterprise  at  the  start.  The  Cath 
olics  were  oppressed  and  down-trodden,  and  if  they  happened  to  pos 
sess  political  power  in  any  dependency  of  England,  there  was  but  one 
course  compatible  with  existence  open  to  them — an  avowed  policy  of 
religious  toleration.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  such  were  the 
views  of  the  first  Lord  Baltimore,  and  this  opinion  is  confirmed  by 
the  government  he  erected,  and  by  the  subsequent  history  of  the 
colony. 

The  charter  drawn  by  Lord  Baltimore  was  granted  to  his  eldest 
son,  Cecilius.  By  this  charter  a  government  was  framed  on  feudal 
principles,  and  modelled  on  that  of  the  Durham  Palatinate.  The  ob 
ject  was  to  found  an  English  barony,  and  the  lord  proprietary  was 
also  invested  with  regal  rights.  The  only  reservation  is  in  the  annual 
payment  of  two  Indian  arrows  by  the  lord  of  the  province  to  the 
Crown,  which  was  a  mere  recognition  of  the  duty  of  allegiance,  and 
of  the  title  of  the  King  to  the  land  as  lord  paramount.  There  is  a 
saving  clause  of  the  allegiance  of  the  inhabitants,  and  a  guarantee  to 
the  colonists  of  the  rights  and  immunities  of  Englishmen.  The  gov 
ernment  set  up  was  a  copy  of  the  English  form,  or,  rather,  of  the 
form  of  English  government  as  it  ought  to  have  been  in  the  opinion 
of  George  Calvert.  An  Assembly  of  Burgesses  filled  the  place  of  the 
Parliament,  and  the  lord  proprietary  that  of  the  King.  The  consti 
tution  was  exactly  such  a  one  as  a  high  prerogative  courtier  in  the 
reign  of  James  would  be  likely  to  draw  if  left  to  himself.  The  lord 
proprietary  was  to  have  the  right  to  make  laws,  not  repugnant  to 
those  of  England,  when  the  freeholders  and  Burgesses  could  not  be 


96  HISTORY  OF  THE 

brought  together,  and  he  was  further  to  have  the  power  of  granting 
titles  and  erecting  manors  and  courts  baron.  Exemption  from  taxa 
tion  was  also  granted.  Much  of  it  was  merely  a  wild  scheme  to 
transplant  decaying  feudalism  to  the  virgin  soil  of  America.  But  all 
this  paraphernalia  of  a  dying  system  proved  as  worthless  in  the  face 
of  the  strong  tide  of  progress  as  the  paper  on  which  it  was  engrossed. 
Certain  other  provisions,  however,  deserve  attention  from  their  con 
nection  with  the  vexed  question  of  toleration. 

In  the  second  article  occurs  the  usual  formula,  expressing,  as  the 
reason  for  the  grant,  "  a  laudable  and  pious  zeal  for  extending  the 
Christian  religion."  In  the  fourth  article  the  right  of  advowsons 
and  patronage  in  the  Church,  as  well  as  the  license  to  erect  chapels, 
churches,  etc.,  are  granted  to  the  lord  proprietary.  But  these  sacred 
buildings  were  to  be  "  dedicated  and  consecrated  according  to  the 
ecclesiastical  laws  of  our  kingdom  of  England."  In  the  twenty- 
second  article,  which  gives  to  the  lord  proprietary  the  right  to  have 
all  disputed  points  in  the  charter  decided  in  his  favor,  occurs  this 
clause,  "Provided  always,  that  uo  interpretation  thereof  be  made 
whereby  God's  holy  and  true  Christian  religion,  or  the  allegiance  due 
to  us,  our  heirs  and  successors,  may  in  anywise  suffer  by  change, 
prejudice,  or  diminution."  These  three  passages  contain  all  the  refer 
ences  to  religion  in  the  charter.  The  first  is  purely  formal,  and  oc 
curs  in  all  the  colonial  charters.  The  second  puts  the  control  of  the 
Church  in  the  hands  of  the  lord  proprietary.  That  the  head  of  the 
Church  in  the  province  should  be  a  Roman  Catholic  was  not  at  vari 
ance  with  English  habits.  Catholic  noblemen  in  England  could  pre 
sent  Protestant  clergymen  to  livings  of  the  Established  Church  down 
to  the  reign  of  William  and  Mary.  The  Church  thus  given  away  in 
the  charter  was  the  Established  Church  of  England,  and  no  other,  and 
whatever  may  be  claimed  for  the  English  Church  in  the  seventeenth 
century,  it  was  certainly  not  marked  by  a  wise  spirit  of  toleration. 
The  last  passage  goes  even  further,  and  provides  for  the  exclusive 
maintenance  of  the  English  Church.  "  God's  true  and  holy  religion," 
in  1632,  was  in  England  the  religion  of  Charles  and  Laud,  as  distin 
guished  from  that  of  Rome  or  Calvin.  Other  forms  of  Christian  be 
lief  were  not  considered  or  then  recognized  in  England  by  law  as 
"  true  "  or  "  holy."  To  say  that  this  clause  simply  meant  the  religion 
of  Maryland  was  not  to  be  Turkish,  Jewish,  or  pagan,  is  absurd.  No 
sane  man,  or  body  of  men,  would  have  enacted  a  law  against  the  sub 
stitution  of  the  Koran  for  the  Bible,  the  abolition  of  the  New  Testa- 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  97 

ment,  or  the  worship  of  an  Indian  Okee  for  the  regulation  of  an  Eng 
lish  colony.  Under  the  Maryland  charter  there  was  to  be  but  one 
Church  recognized  by  the  State,  the  Church  of  England.  The  relig 
ion  of  Calvert  and  of  Calvert's  followers  was  connived  at,  but  it  was 
not  safe  to  recognize  even  in  a  colonial  charter  the  followers  of  him 
whom  Englishmen  generally  regarded  as  the  Antichrist.  Nor  was  it 
characteristic  of  Charles  to  extend  a  beneficent  toleration  to  Protes 
tant  sects  opposed  to  his  own.  In  a  word,  there  is  no  toleration 
about  the  Maryland  charter.  George  Calvert  was  too  astute  a  man, 
and  had  led  too  worldly  a  life,  to  risk  a  great  enterprise  by  any  talk 
about  toleration.  He  believed  in  toleration,  because  men  of  his  creed 
were  oppressed ;  but  that  he  believed  in  it  as  a  great  general  principle, 
is  to  give  the  lie  to  his  whole  life  and  to  the  age  in  which  he  lived. 
A  man  who  had  fostered  the  dark  intrigues  of  the  Spanish  marriage, 
and  had  been  the  close  friend  of  Gondomar,  was  not  likely  to  be  the 
apostle  of  toleration  in  a  bitterly  intolerant  age.  Yet  there  can  be 
no  doubt  of  the  fact  of  religious  toleration  in  Maryland  at  the  outset, 
and  there  were  two  very  good  reasons  for  its  existence.  The  all- 
powerful  lord  proprietary  and  the  principal  men  in  Maryland  were 
Catholics,  and  Catholicism  was  oppressed  and  hated  in  England.  To 
oppress  Catholics  would  have  been  gross  folly  on  the  part  of  the 
Protestant  colonists,  and  to  oppress  Protestants  would  have  been  ruin 
to  the  proprietary.  Religious  toleration  in  Maryland  must  be  attrib 
uted  solely  to  the  very  commonplace  law  of  self-interest ;  and  that  this 
theory  is  the  correct  one  the  subsequent  history  of  the  colony  amply 
proves. 

On  the  29th  of  October,  1633,  Hawkins,  the  searcher  of  vessels  for 
London,  administered  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  one  hundred 
and  twenty -eight  persons  on  board  the  Ark  at  Gravesend. 
Over  three  hundred  persons  sailed  in  the  Ark  and  Dove  for  Maryland. 
At  the  Isle  of  Wight  two  Jesuit  priests,  White  and  Altham,  were 
smuggled  on  board.  During  the  voyage  twelve  of  the  emigrants  died, 
and  of  these  only  two  were  confessed  by  the  Jesuits,  and  acknowl 
edged  themselves  Catholics.  Lord  Baltimore,  writing  to  his  father's 
friend,  Thomas  Wentworth,  describes  the  expedition  as  consisting  of 
"  his  two  brothers,  with  very  near  twenty  other  gentlemen  of  very 
good  fashion,  and  three  hundred  laboring  men,  well  provided  in  all 
things."  From  the  number  who  took  the  oath  of  allegiance,  and  from 
the  faith  of  those  who  died,  together  with  Lord  Baltimore's  own  ac 
count,  it  is  a  fair  presumption  that  a  majority  of  the  settlers  were 


98  HISTORY  OF  THE 

Protestants.  The  "  twenty  gentlemen  of  good  fashion  "  and  their 
immediate  followers  were  probably  the  only  Catholics.  In  such  a 
case,  when  a  Catholic  lord  was  the  ruler  of  a  colony  largely  composed 
of  Protestants,  religious  toleration  was  the  only  possible  policy.  Any 
other  would  have  been  madness. 

The  ships  reached  the  mouth  of  the  Potomac  in  March,  1634.  In 
the  previous  year  a  petition  had  been  sent  to  the  King  by  the 
Virginians,  remonstrating  against  the  encroachments  of  the 
Baltimore  patent,  and  the  question  had  been  referred  by  the  King  to 
the  Council,  who  had  decided  that  Lord  Baltimore  should  be  left  to 
his  patent,  and  the  Virginians  to  the  course  of  law.  At  the  mouth 
of  the  river  they  encountered  the  Virginians,  who,  in  obedience  to 
the  King's  written  orders,  received  the  new-comers  kindly,  and  fur 
nished  necessary  supplies.  Here,  too,  they  met  William  Clayborne, 
who  spread  ugly  rumors  among  them  of  Indian  hostility.  Leonard 
Calvert,  in  his  turn,  informed  Clayborne  that  his  trading  settlement 
on  Kent  Island  was  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Baltimore  patent. 
Clayborne  was  the  person  most  aggrieved  by  the  Maryland  charter. 
Under  a  general  license  from  Charles  I.  to  trade,  he  had  established 
a  lucrative  post  on  Kent  Island.  The  King,  as  he  had  an  unques 
tioned  right  to  do  under  the  theory  of  English  law,  granted  to  Lord 
Baltimore  a  certain  tract  of  wild  land,  including  Kent  Island.  Clay- 
borne  had  no  legal  right  there  except  as  the  subject  of  Baltimore; 
but,  since  his  real  injuries  coincided  with  the  fancied  ones  of  the  Vir 
ginians  generally,  his  claim  assumed  importance.  Calvert  planted  his 
colony  on  a  bluff  near  the  mouth  of  the  Potomac,  and  named  the  set 
tlement  St.  Mary's.  Experience  had  taught  men  now  the  art  of  col 
onization.  The  emigrants  were  of  the  right  sort,  and  Lord  Balti 
more's  wise  munificence,  and  the  near  neighborhood  of  an  established 
colony,  freed  the  Maryland  settlement  from  the  privations  which 
marked  the  first  years  of  the  earlier  colonies.  The  savages,  more' 
over,  through  the  influence  of  the  Jesuits,  were  treated  sensibly  and 
honestly ;  land  was  from  the  first  granted  to  individuals  in  fee-sim 
ple,  and  the  little  colony  prospered.  A  visit  from  Governor  Harvey 
assured  Calvert  that  Clayborne  could  not  hope  for  official  support, 
however  well  off  he  might  be  in  the  way  of  popular  sympathy. 
There  was,  however,  so  strong  a  feeling  in  favor  of  Clayborne  in  Vir 
ginia,  that  he  was  soon  able  to  send  an  armed  pinnace  up  the 
Chesapeake  to  defend  his  invaded  rights  at  Kent  Island,  but 
the  expedition  was  unfortunate.  Governor  Calvert,  after  a  sharp 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  99 

encounter,  captured  Clayborne's  pinnace,  and  proclaimed  its  owner  a 
rebel.  Calvert  then  demanded  that  the  author  of  this  trouble  should 
be  given  up  by  Virginia;  but  Harvey,  who  had  been  in  difficulties 
himself  on  account  of  his  lukewarmness  toward  Clayborne,  refused 
to  comply,  and  the  rebel  solved  the  problem  in  his  own  way  by 
going  at  once  to  England  to  attack  his  enemies  in  their  stronghold. 
The  same  year  an  assembly  of  the  freeholders  was  held  in  Maryland, 
and  many  laws  were  enacted,  all  of  which  Lord  Baltimore  refused  to 
sign,  on  the  broad  ground  that  his  colonists  had  no  right  to  initiate 
legislation.  Among  these  laws  was  one  providing  that  all  felonies 
should  be  tried  by  English  law,  and  there  is  a  tradition  of  a  bill  of 
attainder  against  William  Clayborne,  who  at  least  left  a  distinct  mark 
upon  early  Maryland  legislation — if  not  in  1635,  soon  after,  and  for 
many  succeeding  years. 

For  the  next  three  years  the  colony  progressed  peacefully,  estab 
lished  order  upon  Kent  Island,  and  was  only  anxious  about  the  Indians, 
whom  Clayborne  had  remembered  to  inflame  by  various  ingenious  fab 
rications  as  to  the  character  and  objects  of  the  new  settlers.  Immi 
gration  increased,  and  the  Protestant  interest  in  the  colony  grew  with 
the  population,  and  gained  additional  strength  from  the  acquisition  of 
Kent  Island,  whose  settlers  were  not  only  hostile  to  the  Calvert  gov 
ernment  in  politics,  but  in  religion  as  well.  When  the  Assembly  next 
was  called  together,  they  retaliated  upon  Lord  Baltimore  his 
own  action  of  three  years  before.  The  freemen  rejected  the 
code  of  laws  prepared  by  the  proprietary,  and  prepared  others  them 
selves,  taking  their  stand  on  the  broad  ground  that  the  initiation  of 
legislation  belonged  to  them,  and  to  them  alone.  This  point  they 
eventually  carried,  and  the  lord  proprietary  was  forced  to  content  him 
self  with  a  free  exercise  of  the  veto  power  in  rejecting  all  the  Assem 
bly's  laws.  They  did  not  at  this  session  forget  to  pass  bills  of  at 
tainder  against  Clayborne's  followers,  nor  had  Clayborne,  on  his  part, 
been  unmindful  of  them.  On  his  arrival  in  England  he  had  presented 
a  petition  to  the  King,  and  by  adroitly  working  on  the  cupidity  of 
Charles,  not  only  came  near  recovering  Kent  Island,  but  almost  ob 
tained  a  large  grant  besides.  After  involving  Lord  Baltimore  in  a 
good  deal  of  litigation,  Clayborne  was  obliged,  by  an  adverse  decision 
of  the  Lords  Commissioners  of  Plantations,  to  abandon  all  hopes  in 
England,  and  therefore  withdrew  to  Virginia,  to  wait  for  better  times. 

For  some  years  Maryland  throve,  undisturbed  except  by  slight  In 
dian  outbreaks.  The  wise  policy  of  toleration  and  the  liberal  land 


100  HISTORY  OF  THE 

grants  increased  immigration,  and  men  of  all  creeds  sought  the  peace 
ful  government  of  the  Calverts.  Religious  toleration,  however,  not 
only  induced  persecuted  Catholics,  but  oppressed  Puritans  as  well,  to 
come  to  the  colony ;  and  English  Protestants  soon  wearied  of  liberal 
ity  when  practised  by  men  of  a  hated  faith  and  less  political  strength 
than  their  own.  The  rapid  rise  of  the  Puritan  party  in  England 
fanned  this  discontent,  and  prepared  the  way  for  radical  changes. 
An  insight  into  the  real  purposes  of  the  proprietary  is  afforded  by  a 
letter  written  to  Governor  Calvert  in  1642.  Lord  Baltimore 
therein  directed  "  that  no  ecclesiastic  in  the  province  ought  to 
expect,  nor  is  Lord  Baltimore,  nor  any  of  his  officers,  although  they  are 
Roman  Catholics,  obliged  in  conscience  to  allow  such  ecclesiastics  any 
more,  or  other  privileges,  exemptions,  or  immunities  for  their  persons, 
lands,  or  goods,  than  is  allowed  by  his  majesty  or  other  officers  to  like 
persons  in  England."  The  reason  for  this  course  was  "  the  depend 
ence  of  the  State  of  Maryland  on  the  State  of  England,  unto  which 
it  must,  as  near  as  may,  be  conformable."  Lord  Baltimore  was  a  true 
son  of  his  father,  discreet  and  not  over-zealous.  He  was  glad  to  con 
trol  this  policy  in  favor  of  the  Catholics  as  long  as  he  could ;  but  if 
that  policy  endangered  the  success  of  his  colony,  the  Catholics  had 
to  go  to  the  wall.  Leonard  Calvert,  apparently  unable  to  comprehend 
the  course  of  his  shrewder  brother  in  the  troubled  times  now  begin 
ning,  sailed  to  England  for  instructions.  He  found  Lord  Balti 
more  trying  hard  to  keep  on  good  terms  with  both  parties  in 
England ;  but  dexterous  as  he  was,  this  was  an  impossible  task.  Al 
though  anxious  to  preserve  the  favor  of  Parliament,  he  still  adhered 
to  the  King,  and  was  commissioned  by  Charles  to  seize  any  Parlia 
ment  ships  in  Maryland.  Unluckily,  Brent,  the  Deputy-governor,  saw 
fit  to  execute  the  order,  and  seized  the  ship  of  one  Richard  Ingle, 
who  was  also  strongly  suspected  of  piracy.  The  Puritan  party  was 
roused  by  this  step,  and  by  the  course  of  public  affairs,  to  active  hos 
tility.  Clayborne's  opportunity  had  come,  and  he  was  not  slow  to 
take  advantage  of  it.  He  easily  obtained  possession  of  Kent 
Island,  and  shortly  after  Ingle,  eager  to  revenge  the  loss  of  his 
ship,  broke  into  the  Assembly  convened  by  Governor  Calvert  at  St. 
Mary's  at  the  head  of  an  armed  band,  and  made  himself  master  of  the 
government.  Leonard  Calvert,  just  returned  from  England,  was  forced 
to  fly  to  Virginia.  Clayborne  and  Ingle,  acting  in  the  name  of  the 
Parliament,  made  Hill,  a  Virginian,  governor;  but  their  power  was 
badly  used,  their  party  was  weak,  and  their  rule  was  of  short  dura- 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  101 

tion.  The  Catholics  were  too  numerous  and  too  active  to  submit  to 
a  government  of  force  in  the  hands  of  the  small  Puritan  faction,  while 
the  majority  of  the  Protestants  seem  to  have  remained  neutral  through 
out  ;  and  Ingle,  who  appears  to  have  been  more  of  a  buccaneer  than 
politician,  filled  his  ship  with  goods  and  departed.  Further  resistance 

by  Clayborne  and  his  followers  became  impossible.    Calvert  re; 

turned  from  Virginia  at  the  head  of  considerable  forces,  took 
possession  of  the  government,  and  quiet  was  restored.  Soon  after 

Calvert  died — a  wise,  prudent  man,  and  a  good  governor  after 

the  fashion  of  his  family.  He  appointed  as  his  successor 
Thomas  Greene,  who  was  a  Catholic,  a  Royalist,  and  the  head  of  both 
interests  in  the  colony.  He  seems  to  have  continued  the  judicious 
government  of  his  predecessor,  and  ruled  peaceably,  except  for  the 
customary  wrangling  with  the  Assembly,  this  time  on  the  matter  of 
informality  in  the  summons.  The  wounds  of  the  late  rebellion  were 
healed  by  a  general  amnesty,  from  which  Ingle  alone  was  excepted. 
This  desirable  quiet  did  not  long  endure,  for  the  struggle  in  England 
was  too  mighty  to  permit  the  smallest  colony  to  escape  its  influence. 
The  triumph  of  Parliament  compelled  Lord  Baltimore,  always  keenly 
alive  to  the  value  of  his  colony  and  his  own  interests,  to  abandon  the 
policy  of  Catholic  rule  accompanied  by  general  toleration  ;  but  with  his 
wonted  shrewdness,  he  perceived  that  only  by  timely  and  genuine  con 
cessions  could  he  hope  to  save  his  possessions  and  render  the  province 
of  a  Roman  Catholic  nobleman  acceptable  to  the  Puritan  party  of 
England.  Acting  upon  this  opinion,  he  removed  Greene,  and  appointed 
in  his  stead  William  Stone,  a  Virginian,  a  Protestant  and  a  strong 
supporter  of  the  terrible  Long  Parliament.  A  Protestant  secretary 
and  Protestant  councillors  were  also  appointed.  Stone's  commission 
forbade  him  to  meddle  with  religion,  and  his  oath  of  office  bound 
him  not  to  discountenance  any  persons  who  professed  to  believe 
in  Jesus  Christ,  nor,  in  particular,  any  Catholic.  Lord  Baltimore, 
by  the  appointment  of  Protestants,  endeavored  to  secure  from  attacks 
in  England  his  own  interests  in  Maryland,  while  by  the  commission 
and  oath  he  sought  to  protect  his  Catholic  subjects  against  Protestant 
persecution.  The  first  Assembly  called  by  Governor  Stone  passed  the 
1649  D°W  ^amous  "toleration  act."  The  mixture  of  sects  in  the 

colony,  due  to  the  previous  policy  of  religious  toleration,  and 
the  presence  of  a  small  but  united  body  of  Puritans  who  had  been 
driven  from  Virginia,  made  such  a  measure  an  absolute  necessity  un 
less  the  proprietary  was  prepared  to  face  an  immediate  insurrection, 


102  HISTORY  OF  THE 

formidable  in  itself,  and  irresistible  when  supported,  as  it  would  be 
by  the  dominant  party  in  England.  The  "toleration  act"  was  proba 
bly  due  to  Lord  Baltimore's  influence;  but  it  was  passed  by  a  Protes 
tant  governor  and  Protestant  councillors,  while  the  lower  house,  on 
the  other  hand,  had,  apparently,  a  majority  of  Catholic  members. 
Lord  Baltimore  was  bound  by  his  religion  to  persecute  heretics,  and 
probably  thought  the  tenet  in  the  abstract  a  good  one ;  but  he  knew 
that  such  a  course  would  be  fatal  to  any  Catholic  who  attempted  it, 
whether  in  England  or  the  colonies.  For  the  sake  of  self-interest  and 
the  protection  of  fellow  -  believers,  Lord  Baltimore  got  his  Council 
and  Assembly  to  agree  not  to  persecute  Catholics.  This  is  what  the 
famous  act  of  toleration  amounted  to.  Religious  toleration  really  ex 
ists  only  when  the  strong  tolerate  the  weak,  and  not  when  the  weak 
by  fortuitous  circumstances  are  enabled  to  present  the  appearance  of 
tolerating  the  strong.  The  largest  measure  of  toleration  can  exist, 
moreover,  only  when  Church  and  State  are  disunited ;  but  the  terms 
of  the  Maryland  charter  provided  for  an  Established  Church,  and  the 
Assembly  seems  never  to  have  doubted  its  right  to  interfere  oppres 
sively  or  otherwise  in  matters  of  conscience. 

But  to  whatever  causes  this  toleration  was  due,  it  worked  well  in 
populating  Maryland.  There  was  an  influx  of  immigration,  composed 
in  part  of  the  Puritans  driven  from  Virginia  by  Berkeley.  These  peo 
ple,  although  refusing  the  oath  of  fidelity,  settled  at  Providence,  near 
the  site  of  Annapolis.  Not  merely  the  Protestant  but  the  Puritan  in 
terest  was  now  predominant  in  Maryland,  and  in  the  next  As 
sembly  the  Puritan  faction  had  control.  They  elected  one  of 
their  leaders  Speaker,  and  expelled  a  Catholic  who  refused  to  take  an 
oath  requiring  secrecy  on  the  part  of  the  Burgesses.  Even  if  most  of 
the  Protestant  party  were  members  of  the  English  Church,  the  Puritans 
were  clearly  the  controlling  element,  and  the  objectionable  clauses  were 
expunged  from  the  oath  of  fidelity.  Yet  they  passed  stringent  laws 
against  Clayborne,  and  an  act  reciting  their  affection  for  Lord  Balti 
more,  who  had  so  vivid  an  idea  of  their  power  that  he  deemed  it  best 
to  assent  to  sumptuary  laws  of  a  typically  Puritan  character.  The 
Assembly  appears  to  have  acknowledged  the  supremacy  of  Parlia 
ment,  while  their  proprietary  went  so  far  in  the  same  direction  that 
his  loyalty  was  doubted,  and  Charles  II.  afterward  appointed  Sir  Wil 
liam  Davenant  in  his  place  to  govern  Maryland.  This  discreet  con 
duct  on  the  part  of  Lord  Baltimore  served,  however,  as  a  protection 
neither  to  the  colonists  nor  to  the  proprietary  rights. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  103 

To  the  next  Assembly  the  Puritans  at  Providence  refused  to  send 
delegates,  evidently  expecting  a  dissolution  of  the  proprietary  gov 
ernment,  and  the  consequent  supremacy  of  their  faction.  Nor  were 
they  deceived.  Such  had  been  the  prudence  of  the  Assembly  and 
of  Lord  Baltimore,  that  Maryland  was  not  expressly  named  in  the 
Parliamentary  commission  for  the  "  inducement "  of  the  colonies, 
but,  unfortunately,  Clayborne  was  the  ruling  spirit  among  the  Parlia 
mentary  commissioners,  and  he  was  not  the  man  to  let  any  informali 
ty  of  wording  in  a  document  stand  between  him  and  his  revenge.  In 
vain  did  Governor  Stone  lend  assistance  to  the  commissioners  in  Vir 
ginian  matters.  Clayborne  and  Richard  Bennet,  one  of  the  Provi 
dence  settlers,  and  also  a  commissioner,  soon  gave  their  undivided 
attention  to  Maryland.  They  proceeded  to  St.  Mary's,  required 
of  the  Governor  and  Council  a  test  called  the  "  engagement," 
which  was  thereupon  subscribed  to,  and  they  also  demanded  that  writs, 
etc.,  should  be  issued  in  the  name  of  the  Commonwealth,  which  was 
refused.  Stone  was  then  displaced ;  but  at  the  expiration  of  a  year 
Clayborne  and  Bennet,  requiring  the  aid  of  his  popularity,  reinstated 
him.  Stone,  however,  appears  to  have  yielded  to  their  terms,  and  to 
have  definitely  sided  with  the  Puritan  party.  The  Council  was  entire 
ly  composed  of  the  Providence  settlers,  who  were  now,  as  they  antici 
pated,  supreme.  Stone,  who  seems  to  have  been  torn  between  his 
wish  to  serve  Lord  Baltimore  faithfully,  and  his  desire  to  stand  well 
with  the  commissioners,  soon  swung  back  to  the  old  proprietary  rule, 
under  which  writs  again  ran  with  Calvert's  name  upon  them  ;  but  he  en 
deavored  to  trim  at  a  time  when  trimming  was  impossible.  Naturally 
he  suited  no  one,  and,  although  seemingly  a  very  well-meaning  man,  he 
got  only  hard  knocks  from  one  side  and  harsh  words  from  the  other. 
Stone's  second  change,  however,  was  a  decided  one.  Although  he 
proclaimed  Cromwell  as  Lord  -  Protector,  he  carried  on  the  govern 
ment  exclusively  in  Baltimore's  interest,  ejected  the  Puritans,  recalled 
the  Catholic  Councillors,  and  issued  a  proclamation  against  the  in 
habitants  of  Providence  as  factious  and  seditious.  A  flagrant  attempt 
to  convert  a  young  girl  to  Catholicism  added  fuel  to  the 
flames.  Moderation  was  at  an  end.  Clayborne  and  Bennet, 
backed  by  Virginia,  returned  and  called  an  Assembly,  from  which 
Catholics  were  to  be  excluded.  In  Maryland,  as  in  England,  the  ex 
treme  wing  of  the  Puritan  party  was  now  in  the  ascendant,  and  ex 
ercised  its  power  oppressively  and  relentlessly.  Stone  took  arms  and 
marched  against  the  Puritans.  A  battle  was  fought  at  Providence,  in 


104  HISTORY  OF  THE 

which  the  Puritans,  who,  whatever  their  other  failings,  were  always 
ready  in  a  fray,  were  completely  victorious.     A  few  executions  and 
some  sequestrations  followed,  and  severe  laws  against  the  Catholics 
were  passed.    The  policy  of  the  Puritans  was  not  toleration,  and  they 
certainly  never  believed  in  it.     Nevertheless,  Lord  Baltimore  kept  his 
patent,  and  the  Puritans  did  not  receive  in  England  the  warm  sympa 
thy  they  had  expected.     Cromwell,  now  all-powerful,  cared  less  than 
ever  for  useless  fighting  or  unnecessary  extremities.     He  listened  to 
the  explanations  of  Bennet  and  Mathews,  said  he  had  not  intended, 
by  his  previous  proclamation  in  favor  of  Lord  Baltimore,  to  abridge 
their  powers,  and  gave  his  decision  in  favor  of  the  government  of 
the  commissioners.     Thus  the  Puritan  government  was  established  in 
Maryland.     But  Cromwell's  support  was  too  lukewarm  to  be  at  once 
decisive.     Although  the  commissioners  of  the  Puritans  were  in  nomi 
nal  as  well  as  actual  control  at  Providence,  yet  Baltimore  removed 
Stone,  and  appointed  Fendall  as  Governor,  to  whom  the  Catholic  pop 
ulation  of  St.  Mary's  adhered.    This  state  of  dissension  injured  great 
ly  the  prosperity  of  the  colony,  until  at  last  Lord  Baltimore 
on  the  one  side,  and  Bennet  and  Mathews  on  the  other,  came 
to  terms,  which  were  carried  out  in  the  province.     The  proprietary 
government  was  to  be  re-established  and  recognized,  and  a  general 
act  of  oblivion  and  indemnity  was  to  be  passed.     Fendall  was  con 
tinued  as  Governor,  and  the  Assembly  ratified  the  agreement.     The 
results  of  all  this  turbulence  were  the  right  to  carry  arms,  the  practi 
cal  assertion  of  the  right  to  make  laws  and  lay  taxes,  relief  from  the 
oath  of  fealty  with  the  obnoxious  clauses,  and  the  breakdown  of  the 
Catholic  interest  in  Maryland  politics.    Toleration  was  wisely  restored. 
The  solid  advantages  were  gained  by  the  Puritan  minority  at  the  ex 
pense  of  the  lord  proprietary.     In  the  interregnum  which  ensued  on 
the  abdication  of  Richard  Cromwell,  the  Assembly  met  and 
claimed  supreme  authority  in  the  province,  and  denied  their 
responsibility  to  any  one  but  the  sovereign  in  England.     Fendall,  a 
weak  man  of  the  agitator  species,  acceded  to  the  claims  of  the  As 
sembly  ;  but  Baltimore  removed  Fendall,  and  kept  the  power  which 
the  Assembly  had  attempted  to  take  away.     This  action  of  the  rep 
resentative  body  simply  shows  the  decided  political  advance  made  in 
Maryland,  as  in  all  the  British  dominions,  under  the  impulse  of  the 
Great  Rebellion.     Maryland  did  not  suffer  by  the  Restoration,  as  was 
the  case  with  her  sister  colonies,  but  gained  many  solid  advantages. 
The  factious  strife  of  years  was  at  last  allayed,  and  order,  peace,  and 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  105 

stability  of  government  supervened.  Philip  Calvert,  an  illegitimate 
son  of  the  first  proprietary,  was  governor  for  nearly  two  years,  and 
was  then  succeeded  by  his  nephew,  Charles,  the  oldest  son  of 
Lord  Baltimore,  whose  administration  lasted  for  fourteen.  It 
would  have  been  difficult  to  find  at  that  time  better  governors  than 
these  Calverts  proved  themselves.  Moderate  and  just,  they  adminis 
tered  the  affairs  of  Maryland  sensibly  and  well.  Population  increased, 
and  the  immigration  of  Quakers  and  foreigners,  and  of  the  oppressed 
of  all  nations,  was  greatly  stimulated  by  a  renewal  of  the  old  policy 
of  religious  toleration.  The  prosperity  of  the  colony  was  marked,  and 
its  only  difficulties  were  due  principally  to  external  causes.  The  over 
growth  of  tobacco,  and  a  corresponding  scarcity  of  corn,  were  sources 
of  anxiety  to  both  people  and  rulers.  Vain  attempts  were  made 
to  remedy  these  evils  by  law  and  by  agreements  with  Virginia ;  but 
these  economical  problems,  questions  of  boundary  with  Dutch  and 
English,  a  few  trifling  troubles  with  the  Indians,  and  FendalPs  "  sedi 
tious  practices  "  alone  disturbed  Maryland's  internal  tranquillity  dur 
ing  the  mild  rule  of  the  Calverts.  The  Assembly,  unmolested  in  their 
possession  of  the  law-making  and  taxing  power,  were  quiet  and  rea 
sonable,  and  granted  the  proprietary  an  annual  allowance  from  the 
export  duty  on  tobacco. 

In  1675  Charles  Calvert,  the  Governor,  became  lord  proprietary  by 
the  death  of  his  father,  Cecilius.     He  instituted  a  thorough 
revision  of  the  laws,  for  which  his  new  position  and  presence 
in  the  colony  gave  peculiar  advantages,  and  then,  having  appointed 
Thomas  Notly  Deputy-governor,  he  sailed  for  England.     His  depart 
ure  was  the  signal  for  a  renewal  of  the  old  dissensions  from  which 
the  colony  had  been  so  long  exempt.    As  had  happened  twenty  years 
before,  a  minority  in  the  colony,  in  sympathy  with  the  dominant  par 
ty  in  England,  wished  to  obtain  control  in  matters  of  religion,  and, 
backed  by  the  home  government,  renew  a  policy  of  intolerance  in 
their  own  interests.     Now,  of  course,  this  minority  was  composed  of 
Protestants  of  the  Established  Church,  instead  of  the  Puritans,  as  in 
the  days  of  the  Commonwealth.     The  first  attack  came  from 
the  Episcopalian  clergy,  who  complained  of  the  bad  condition 
of  the  Church  in  the  province,  and  urged  Lord  Baltimore  to  support  it 
with  the  power  of  government.    This  Lord  Baltimore  refused  to  do. 
The  condition  of  the  Established  Church  was  no  doubt  very  bad,  but, 
as  the  lord  proprietary  wisely  pointed  out,  they  already  had  received 
some  assistance  from  the  government,  and  the  improvement  of  their 


106  HISTORY  OF  THE 

Church  must  rest  with  themselves.  The  old  policy  of  toleration  was 
thus  maintained  for  the  time,  at  least ;  but  there  was  great  laxness  in 
religious  matters  in  the  province,  which  gave  opportunities  for  com 
plaints  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  rapid  propagation  of  new  sects  on 
the  other.  Quakerism,  then  just  beginning  its  career,  took  strong 
hold  in  Maryland,  and  was  for  many  years  a  vigorous  and  good  in 
fluence  socially  and  politically.  But  the  complaints  of  the  Episcopal 
clergy,  though  unsuccessful  with  Lord  Baltimore,  marked  the  begin 
ning  of  a  struggle  between  the  Protestants  of  the  Established  Church 
on  the  one  side,  and  the  Quakers  and  Roman  Catholics  on  the  other. 
The  latter  appeared  as  the  defenders  of  the  toleration  policy,  which 
the  former  aimed  to  subvert  and  replace  with  the  Church  and  State 
system  then  in  vogue  in  England.  Thus  supported  by  an  active  par 
ty,  Lord  Baltimore  had  nothing  to  fear  in  the  province ;  but  in  Eng 
land  the  course  of  public  affairs  proved  most  unfavorable  to  his  fort 
unes.  The  excitement  produced  by  the  Popish  plot  and  the 
consequent  proceedings  in  Parliament  compelled  Lord  Balti 
more  to  fill  all  the  Maryland  offices  with  Protestants,  and  served  also 
as  a  signal  for  numerous  accusations  against  the  proprietary  of  par 
tiality  to  his  fellow  -  believers.  These  attacks  Lord  Baltimore  easily 
repelled  ;  but  there  were  others  also  forth-coming  which  seriously  im 
perilled  his  possessions,  inasmuch  as  they  concerned  the  royal  coffers. 
Almost  the  only  real  grievance  of  the  Maryland  colonists  was  the  en 
forcement  of  the  Navigation  Act,  and  the  levying  of  customs  for  the 
benefit  of  the  Crown.  In  true  colonial  fashion  the  former  was  avoid 
ed,  and  the  latter  both  resisted  and  eluded.  Lord  Baltimore,  ever 
watchful  of  his  own  interests  and  of  those  of  his  colony,  had  un 
doubtedly  connived  at  these  practices.  The  government  of  Charles 
II.,  touched  by  such  conduct  in  its  tenderest  point,  threatened  a  quo 
warranto,  and  the  Duke  of  York  granted  to  William  Penn  lands  lying 
within  the  Maryland  boundaries ;  while  a  limitation  of  the  right  of  suf 
frage  afforded  a  new  and  advantageous  battle-ground  for  the  discon 
tented  elements  in  the  province,  so  that,  although  the  colonists  throve, 
the  poor  proprietary  was  beset  with  difficulties.  The  accession  of 
James  II.  brought  no  relief  to  Lord  Baltimore.  Instead  of  sympathy 
from  a  fellow-Catholic,  he  met  only  with  oppression.  The  grant  to 
Penn,  dismembering  his  province,  was  confirmed,  and  a  fresh  writ  of 
quo  warranto  was  issued  against  his  charter.  In  the  province  itself 
the  Protestants,  who  chafed  at  the  spectacle  of  toleration,  which  they 
knew  need  not  exist  if  the  proprietary  power  were  overthrown,  at 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  107 

last  rose  in  arms.  This  time,  of  course,  members  of  the  Established 
Church  controlled  the  insurrection,  and  only  a  very  subordinate  part 
was  taken  by  the  Puritan  element.  An  old  supporter  and  friend  of 
Fendall,  one  John  Coode,  appeared  at  the  head  of  the  "  Association 
for  the  defence  of  the  Protestant  religion."  The  crisis  came,  as  in  all 
the  other  colonies,  at  the  moment  of  the  Revolution  in  England,  and 
this  gave  force  and  strength  to  these  provincial  insurrections  which, 
in  Maryland  at  least,  they  could  never  have  acquired  otherwise.  The 
President  of  the  Council,  Joseph,  demanded  an  oath  of  fidelity  from 
the  Assembly,  and  hesitated  to  proclaim  William  and  Mary.  This 
gave  the  insurgents  their  opportunity,  and  they  took  arms  to  assert  the 
rights  of  William  and  the  Protestant  religion,  neither  of  which  had 
been  infringed.  The  efforts  of  tlie"Associators"  were  crown 
ed  with  success.  They  called  a  convention,  and  forwarded  an 
address  to  William,  who  responded  by  creating  a  royal  government — 
the  proprietary  being  excluded  by  the  new  laws  against  Cath 
olics — and  sending  out  Sir  Lionel  Copley  as  Governor.  The 
pecuniary  benefits  accruing  to  Lord  Baltimore  from  his  province  were 
alone  left  untouched.  Never  did  an  insurrection  and  successful  revo 
lution  arise  so  absolutely  without  apparent  cause.  The  government  of 
Maryland  as  administered  by  the  Calverts  was,  according  to  modern 
notions,  the  best,  probably,  at  that  day  in  existence.  There  was  noth 
ing  in  the  least  resembling  oppression ;  and  although  the  feudal  nat 
ure  of  the  government  was  an  anomaly,  it  did  not  injure  the  people, 
and  the  powers  of  the  proprietary  were  suffering  constant  diminution. 
According  even  to  the  address  of  the  rebels,  not  one  real  grievance 
existed.  The  causes  of  the  revolution  in  Maryland  were  due  to  two 
facts — the  policy  of  toleration,  for  which  the  popular  mind  was  not 
yet  prepared,  and  the  condition  of  affairs  in  England.  Toleration 
was  even  then  little  more  than  a  speculative  principle,  and  its  practice 
in  Maryland  gave  a  peculiar  religious  aspect  to  her  whole  history : 
indeed,  religion  was  at  the  root  of  all  the  troubles.  The  tolerated 
party  in  the  State  was  the  one  possessing  the  support  of  the  mother 
country.  They  therefore  found  themselves  the  objects  of  toleration, 
when,  if  they  could  once  obtain  control,  no  such  thing  need  exist. 
The  result  of  this  was  that  there  was  always  a  large  faction  in  Mary 
land  hostile  to  the  proprietary  government,  because  it  would  not  per 
mit  them  to  indulge  their  bigotry.  Every  revolution  in  England  was 
sure  to  produce  one  in  Maryland,  from  the  existence  of  a  class  of 
men  discontented  in  religious  matters,  and  anxious  to  make  their  faith 


108  HISTORY  OF  THE 

the  religion  of  the  State,  and  have  it  enforced  as  such.  Lord  Balti 
more  suffered  because  he  wisely  persevered  in  the  only  policy  com 
patible  with  his  interests  and  his  religion,  and  because  James  II.  in 
sisted  on  misgoverning  England. 

The  new  royal  government  went  on  with  little  apparent  change, 
except  that  the  King's  name  was  substituted  for  that  of  Lord  Balti 
more  in  the  writs.  The  remaining  proprietary  rights  were  protected 
by  the  government  against  the  attacks  of  the  Assembly.  The  Church 

of  England  was  established,  and  taxes  laid  for  its  support. 
1694^  Other  Protestant  sects  were  practically  tolerated,  but  Catholics 

were  made  the  subject  of  persecution.  The  public  exercise  of 
their  religion  was  forbidden,  and  their  immigration  was  prevented  by 
stringent  laws.  In  furtherance  of  this  anti-Catholic  policy  the  capital 
was  removed  from  St.  Mary's  to  Annapolis,  the  site  of  the  old  Puritan 
settlement.  The  period  of  royal  government  in  Maryland  was  one  of 
steady  decline.  The  establishment  of  a  Church  of  which  only  a  mi 
nority  of  the  population  were  members,  and  the  general  taxes  laid  for 
its  support,  caused  deep  and  ever-increasing  dissatisfaction,  and  the 
new  religious  policy  fostered  also  a  dislike  of  the  external  power  which 
alone  made  it  possible.  It  bred  a  coolness  and  distrust  in  regard  to 
England,  and  wholly  alienated  large  classes  of  the  community  from 
the  mother  country.  The  Roman  Catholics  were  persecuted,  and 
the  Quakers  discountenanced,  and  thus  the  two  best  elements  in  the 
State  lost  all  influence,  and  were  forced  into  a  bitter  opposition.  The 
course  of  the  provincial  government  of  Maryland  sowed  the  seeds,  and 
the  establishment  of  the  English  Church  prepared  the  soil  for  the 
hostile  feelings  which  ripened  so  readily  in  1776.  The  effects  of  the 
royal  government  and  of  its  policy  were  soon  apparent.  Prosperity 
declined,  the  tone  of  society  was  lowered,  and  a  general  spirit  of  re 
sistance  to  the  administration  in  the  matter  of  the  charter  and  of 
taxes  was  developed.  Royal  requisitions  at  the  time  of  the  French 
wars  were  made  on  the  colony,  and  were  sometimes  complied  with, 
but  were  much  oftener  sullenly  refused.  At  last  the  proprietary, 

Benedict  Leonard  Calvert,  the  son  of  Charles,  changed  his 
1715.'  religion,  and,  dying  soon  after  his  recognition  as  proprietary, 

the  province  devolved  upon  his  infant  heir,  Charles  Calvert, 
and  the  old  government  was  firmly  re-established.  At  the  restora 
tion  of  Lord  Baltimore,  fresh  efforts  were  made  in  England  for  an 
abrogation  of  the  charter,  but,  like  those  in  the  time  of  the  royal  gov 
ernors,  these  attempts  were  defeated.  The  resistance  of  both  people 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  109 

and  proprietary  was  crowned  with  success,  and  forty  years  of  per 
fect  tranquillity  ensued  under  the  restored  government  of  the  bar 
ons  of  Baltimore.  Insignificant  conflicts  with  the  Indians,  a  share 
in  the  Carthagena  expedition,  and  disputes  with  Pennsylvania  and 
Virginia  about  boundaries,  constitute  Maryland's  external  history  dur 
ing  this  long  period.  The  course  of  domestic  affairs  was  hardly 
more  eventful.  The  same  features  were  presented  in  Maryland  as  in 
Virginia  during  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century.  A  general 
political  indifference,  followed  by  petty  and  harassing  quarrels  be 
tween  Governor  and  Assembly,  were  the  political  characteristics  of 
both  colonies  at  this  time.  The  first  conflict  arose  about  the  intro 
duction  of  English  laws.  The  Assembly  desired  them,  because  they 
would  be  beneficial  to  the  people;  the  proprietary  opposed  them  as 
infringements  on  his  rights,  and  after  ten  years  of  rambling 
argument  and  discussion,  the  Assembly  prevailed.  The  next 
discussion  found  its  origin  in  that  ever-fruitful  source  of  trouble,  taxa 
tion.  The  Assembly  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  duties 

1739. 

levied  by  the  proprietary  were  oppressive  and  unjust,  and  they 

protested  also  against  the  Governor's  power  of  fixing  official  fees  by 
proclamation,  and  of  creating,  without  the  consent  of  the  Assembly, 
new  offices  and  new  perquisites.  They  finally  prevailed,  in  a  measure, 
on  all  these  points,  but  the  tobacco  and  tonnage  duties  remained  an 
ever-recurring  annoyance. 

Maryland  never  displayed  much  readiness  to  join  with  the  other 
colonies  in   times  of  difficulty  and  danger,  and  when   events   sug 
gested  the  necessity  of  union,  she  usually  manifested  great  indiffer 
ence.     When  the  French  war  came,  Maryland  held  aloof;   and  al 
though  commissioners  were  sent  to  Albany,  they  refused  to  agree  to 
the  plan  of  union  presented  by  Franklin,  and  adopted  by  the  Con 
vention.    In  the  actual  operations  of  the  war  Maryland  had  but 
a  small  share.     She  suffered  from  the  results  of  Braddock's 
defeat,  and  panic  and  terror  spread  through  the  province,  yet  noth 
ing  effectual  was  done  to  check  the  tide  of  Indian  invasion.     Fort 

o 

Cumberland,  the  only  Maryland  outpost,  had  been  built  on  the  west 
ern  frontier,  in  a  position  where  it  served  principally  as  a  source  of 
contention  with  Virginia.  The  chief  exploit  of  the  Marylanders,  and 
the  one  certainly  which  will  be  longest  held  in  remembrance,  was  per 
formed  by  the  commander  of  this  fort,  one  Dagworthy,  who  had 
held  at  one  time  a  royal  commission  as  captain.  On  this  ground  he 
claimed  to  outrank  Washington,  then  in  command  on  the  border. 


110  HISTORY  OF  THE 

Trouble  ensued,  and  finally  Washington  went  to  Boston,  laid  the 
case  before  Shirley,  the  commander-in-chief,  received  his  support,  and 
Dagworthy  was  reduced  to  the  rank  of  a  provincial  captain. 

As  the  war  progressed  the  Indians  ravaged  the  western  part  of  the 
colony,  the  back  settlements  were  driven  in,  and  one  effort  after  an 
other  to  repel  them  failed.  Maryland  believed  that  all  these  misfort 
unes  were  due  to  her  union  with  the  other  colonies,  and  she  thereupon 
resolved  to  devote  all  her  strength  to  the  defence  of  her  own  borders. 
Meantime  Governor  Sharpe  got  into  a  dispute  with  the  Assembly  about 
garrisoning  Fort  Cumberland.  As  usual,  the  Assembly  carried  their 
point ;  but  the  capture  of  Fort  Du  Quesne  relieved  Maryland  from  fur 
ther  anxiety,  and  put  a  stop  to  this  particular  source  of  contention. 

Were  it  not  for  the  question  of  toleration,  the  history  of  Maryland 
would  be  one  of  the  most  uninteresting,  although  not  the  least  in 
structive,  of  the  colonial  histories.  The  proprietary  government  was 
unusually  mild  and  well  administered,  even  though  it  involved  the  in 
congruity  of  a  third  person  intervening  between  subject  and  sovereign. 
Nothing  but  the  moderation  of  the  Calverts  preserved  to  them  their 
province.  Their  popularity  mitigated  the  attacks  of  the  Assemblies, 
and  their  high  character  as  rulers  was  a  barrier  against  assaults  in 
England.  Yet  the  anomalous  nature  of  the  government  led  to  con 
stant  troubles,  which  would  otherwise  have  had  no  existence.  There 
was,  however,  no  government  in  America  which  was,  on  the  whole, 
milder,  and,  except  for  a  few  years  of  disorder,  less  checkered  by  either 
oppression  or  turbulence.  The  very  lack  of  incident  and  of  disputed 
principles,  although  fatal  to  the  interest  of  history,  and  indicative  per 
haps  of  a  stagnation  of  the  intellectual  forces,  is  the  best  proof  that 
the  people  were  contented,  and  the  government  well  and  prudently 
administered.  Apart,  therefore,  from  religion,  Maryland  history  is  al 
most  perfectly  featureless.  The  period  of  settlement  was  undistin 
guished  by  hardships  or  perils ;  the  period  of  revolution  was  accom 
panied  with  comparatively  little  injury,  and  was,  on  the  whole,  produc 
tive  of  good  results,  while  the  period  of  political  quiet  preceding  the 
French  war  was  more  uneventful  even  than  in  the  other  colonies.  Yet 
in  the  history  of  this  small  and  peaceful  province  can  be  seen  unmis 
takable  indications  that  the  very  same  forces  were  gathering  there  as 
in  Virginia  and  Massachusetts.  There  is  the  same  disposition  on  the 
part  of  the  Assembly  to  assert  itself  and  to  encroach  on  the  powers 
of  the  Governor.  The  same  half-expressed  desire  on  the  part  of  the 
people  for  complete  control  which  is  manifested  by  the  same  persist- 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  m 

ent  wrangling  with  the  authorities,  who  excite  jealousy  merely  from 
their  being  sustained  by  an  external  power  of  whose  influence  they 
are  the  living  evidence.  Despite  the  French  war  and  the  consequent 
losses,  the  people  were  prosperous,  and  frugality  and  industry  prevailed 
to  a  greater  extent  than  in  Virginia,  ready  to  heal  the  wounds  of  war. 
The  spirit  of  resistance  to  taxation  by  England  showed  itself  at  an 
early  day.  The  Stamp  Act  was  bitterly  attacked  through  the  Press, 
and  the  opposition  concentrated,  although  the  Assembly  was 
1765?  no^  *n  sessi°n-  Thus  Maryland  drifts  into  the  current  of  na 
tional  life.  In  no  colony  had  the  government  been  gentler  or 
more  peaceable ;  yet  geographical  isolation,  the  struggle  for  existence 
in  a  new  country,  the  absence  of  traditions,  the  sturdy  independence 
of  character  and  love  of  local  self-government  innate  in  the  Eng 
lish  race,  did  their  work  as  surely  in  Maryland  as  among  her  more 
powerful  and  more  turbulent  neighbor^ 


112  HISTORY  OF  THE 


CHAPTER  IV. 

MARYLAND  IN  1765. 

THE  materials  existing  for  a  picture  of  Maryland  in  the  last  century 
are,  as  in  the  case  of  Virginia,  and  for  the  same  reasons,  extremely  mea 
gre.1  Everything,  however,  which  relates  to  the  latter  can  be  applied 
more  or  less  directly  to  the  former,  and  a  standard  of  comparison  is  thus 
furnished  which  is  of  great  assistance.  Maryland  differed  but  slightly 
from  the  great  State  out  of  which  her  territory  was  originally  taken. 
The  modifications  were  due  to  the  more  northern  situation  of  the 
younger  province,  and  the  consequent  influence  of  the  Middle  States, 
and  to  the  causes  which  led  to  the  first  settlement.  Maryland  was 
the  northern  member  of  the  group  of  colonies  of  which  Virginia 
was  the  head,  and  to  all  of  which  she  gave  a  lasting  impression.  In 
climate  and  natural  conformation  the  two  colonies  were,  of  course, 
practically  identical.  There  were  the  same  fine  harbors  and  rivers, 
the  same  fertile  soil  and  boundless  forests  in  both,  and  in  both  the 
land  rose  gradually  from  the  level  of  the  coast  until  the  spurs  of  the 
Alleghanies  were  reached. 

The  customary  policy  of  religious  toleration,  and  the  mild  and  sen 
sible  government  of  the  Calverts  after  the  troubled  period  of  the 
Great  Rebellion,  were  highly  favorable  to  the  growth  of  population. 
In  1660  the  number  of  inhabitants  was  estimated  at  16,000,  and 
had  increased  to  20,000  in  1688.8  The  best  authorities  put  the  pop- 


1  Some  months  after  this  chapter  was  written  Mr.  Scharf  s  History  of  Maryland 
was  published.     The  first  chapter  of  the  second  volume  gives  a  full  account  of  the 
condition  of  Maryland  in  1755.     Mr.  Scharf  has  used  the  same  materials  that  I 
have  used  in  this  chapter,  and  has  drawn  conclusions,  in  the  main,  the  same  as  my 
own.     But  as  he  deals  with  only  one  colony,  and  I  with  thirteen,  his  work  is  full 
er  and  more  elaborate,  and  therefore  better  than  mine.     It  is  to  be  hoped  that 
the  same  service  may  be  rendered  to  the  history  of  every  colony  which  Mr.  Scharf 
has  rendered  to  that  of  Maryland. 

2  M'Mahon's  Hist.  View ;  M'Sherry,  Hist,  of  Maryland,  p.  83 ;  Neill,  Terra  Ma- 
riae,  p.  138. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  113 

illation  in  the  year  1756  at  154,000.'  At  the  time  of  the  Revolu 
tion  there  were  probably  250,000  people  in  the  province,  and  of  this 
number  eighty  to  one  hundred  thousand  were  negroes.9 

The  character  of  the  immigration  to  Maryland  had  been  excel 
lent,  if  we  except  a  large  number  of  transported  convicts.  English 
gentlemen,  farmers  and  yeomen,  had  followed  Leonard  Calvert,  and 
founded  the  colony.  Many  of  the  early  settlers  came  from  Virginia,8 
and  were  chiefly  Puritans.  The  mass  of  the  population  at  the  time 
of  the  Revolution  were  of  English  race,  and  drawn  from  the  great 
middle  classes  of  the  mother  country.4  The  only  foreign  element  of 
importance  were  the  Germans,  who  had  built  up  some  of  the  towns, 
and  who,  as  in  Virginia,  were  to  be  chiefly  found  upon  the  western 
frontier.6  But,  although  the  English  race  prevailed  so  strongly,  the 
religious  freedom  of  Maryland  had  attracted  the  victims  of  persecu 
tion  from  all  countries,  and  the  foreign  races  made  up  in  variety 
what  they  lacked  in  numbers.  In  the  poorest  quarter  of  Baltimore 
a  large  body  of  the  luckless  Acadians  obtained  a  resting-place  and 
employment  as  sailors  ;6  while  in  other  parts  of  the  province  were  to 
be  found  Irish,  Scotch,  Dutch,  Bohemian,  Spanish,  and  Italian  settlers.7 

The  government  of  this  population  was  upon  the  usual  English 
model  common  to  all  the  colonies,  differing  only  in  respect  to  the 
proprietary,  who  interposed  between  the  people  and  the  Crown.  The 
shrewdly-drawn  charter  of  George  and  Cecil  Calvert  assured  nearly 
regal  powers  to  their  successors.  The  proprietary  held  the  title  to 


1  M'Mahon;  M'Sherry,  p.  115. 

2  The  following  figures  are  the  evidence  for  this  estimate,  and  will  also  serve  to 
show  the  difficulty  of  coming  to  any  exact  conclusion,  and  the  vagueness  of  the 
computations  in  regard  to  population  in  the  colonies :  Neill,  Terra  Mariae,  p.  204, 
211,  1719—55,000  whites,  25,500  blacks;  1752—107,000  whites,  45,000  blacks; 
M'Sherry,  p.  115,  1761—114,000  whites,  50,000  blacks;   Burnaby,  p.  67,  1759— 
58,000  whites,  32,000  blacks;  Smyth,  ii.,  187,  1770  —  275,000,  one-half  to  two- 
thirds  negroes;  Maryland  Hist.  Soc.,  vol.  i.,  Allen's  "Who  were  the  early  Settlers 
of  Maryland;"  1758, return  to  Governor  Sharp,  200,000  total  population.     I  have 
relied  principally  upon  the  return  to  Governor  Sharp,  and  have  calculated  the  pro 
portion  of  negroes,  and  the  yearly  increase  of  the  whole  population,  from  a  com- 
parison  of  the  other  estimates. 

3  Maryland  Hist.  Soc.,  i.,  Allen.  4  Ibid. 
6  Eddis,  Letters  from  America;  Smyth, ii.,  187. 

6  Journal  of  Claude  Blanchard,  p.  171 ;  Abbe  Robin,  p.  98. 
T  Maryland  Hist.  Soc.,  i.,  Allen ;  Smyth,  ii.,  187;  Eddis,  Letters  from  America; 
Georgia  Hist.  Coll.,  IV.,  Itin.  Observations. 

8 


114  HISTORY  OF  THE 

all  the  land,  was  captain-general,  and  head  of  the  Church.  All  pat 
ronage,  lay  and  clerical,  amounting  to  fourteen  or  fifteen  thousand 
pounds  a  year — from  the  Governor,  with  a  salary  of  fifteen  hundred 
and  fifty  pounds,  down  to  the  naval  officers  and  sheriffs — was  in  his 
hands.  He  had  a  negative  upon  all  laws,  and  the  power  of  pardon. 
To  the  proprietary  belonged  the  quit-rents,  the  tobacco  and  tonnage 
duties,  and  the  legal  fines  and  forfeitures,  although  the  Assembly  vig 
orously  resisted  this  last  source  of  emolument.  The  net  yearly  in 
come  of  the  proprietary  was  over  twelve  thousand  pounds.1  To  the 
Governor,  who  was  appointed  by  the  proprietary,  the  exercise  of  all 
these  sovereign  powers  was,  as  a  rule,  intrusted.  The  Governor  rep 
resented  the  proprietary  in  the  province,  summoned,  prorogued,  and 
dissolved  the  Assembly,  and  assented  to  laws.  He  also  claimed  a 
veto  on  legislation  ;  but  this  right  was  not  admitted  by  the  Burgesses. 
He  made  all  appointments  to  office,  issued  pardons,  signed  the  war 
rants  for  execution,  and  exercised  great  political  influence.2  The  leg 
islative  body  consisted  of  the  Council  and  the  Burgesses,  who  were 
divided  into  separate  Houses  in  the  year  1650.  The  Council,  con 
sisting  of  twelve  members,  was  nominated  by  the  Governor,  and  was 
wholly  in  the  proprietary  interest.  They  received  nine  shillings  a 
day  for  their  services,  and  were  men  of  wealth  and  position.3  The 
Burgesses  were  elected  by  the  people.  There  were  sixteen  counties, 
eight  on  the  eastern,  and  eight  on  the  western  shore,  the  two  geo 
graphical  divisions  being  always  carefully  balanced.  Each  county 
was  entitled  to  elect  four  Burgesses,  and  two  were  chosen  in  Annap 
olis.  Elections  were  triennial ;  the  suffrage,  as  in  Virginia,  was  re 
stricted  by  a  property  qualification  ;  and  the  Burgesses, "  good  ordinary 
householders  "  in  the  early  days,  were,  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution, 
in  almost  all  cases  the  leading  men  of  the  province.  They  had  suc 
ceeded  in  wringing  from  the  proprietary  the  entire  law-making  pow 
er,  and  limited  the  exercise  of  the  patronage  by  the  regulation  of  fees. 
They  held  the  purse-strings,  and,  as  they  were  extremely  jealous  of 
their  liberties,  were  nearly  always  at  variance  with  their  governors, 
carrying  their  opposition  to  such  an  extent  as  to  sometimes  hamper 
the  government  completely,  and,  at  the  time  of  the  French  war,  they 

1  Burnaby,  pp.  67,  68 ;  M'Mahon,  Hist  .View ;  Neill,  Terra  Maria),  pp.  216,  217, 
note;  Eddis,  Letters  from  America;  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  Coll., I.,  vii.,  202;  A  Rela 
tion  of  Maryland,  Tract. 

2  Burnaby,  pp.  67,  68  ;  Neill,  Terra  Mariae,  p.  217 ;  Eddis,  Letters. 

8  Burnaby,  ibid. ;  M'Mahon;  Eddis;  Kalm's  Travels,  ii.,  28 ;  Bozman. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  115 

reduced  it  to  a  state  of  almost  entire  inaction.1  Tn  forms  of  govern 
ment,  and  in  political  training,  therefore,  Maryland  differed  but  little 
from  her  sister  colonies. 

The  legal  system  of  Maryland  was  simpler  and  better  than  that  of 
Virginia.  There  were  county  courts  holding  quarterly  sessions,  with 
a  bench  of  magistrates  appointed  by  the  Governor  from  among  the 
leading  gentlemen,  removable  at  pleasure,  and  competent  to  try  cases 
involving  not  more  than  forty  shillings.  No  legal  knowledge  seems 
to  have  been  required  from  the  members  of  these  courts,  whose  prin 
cipal  occupation  was  to  mete  out  punishment  to  refractory  servants.9 
The  important  legal  business  of  the  colony  was  transacted  by  the 
provincial  court,  which  sat  twice  a  year  at  Annapolis.  The  judges 
of  this  higher  court  were  also  appointed  by  the  Governor,  but  with  a 
due  consideration  for  legal  attainments.  In  early  times,  a  general 
court  of  assize  had  existed,  but  had  been  dropped  as  useless.  There 
was  also  a  high  court  of  appeals,  and  a  court  of  chancery,  both  com 
posed,  of  the  Governor,  who  was  chancellor  of  the  province,  and  his 
Council,  with  an  appeal  to  the  King  in  Council.3  The  common  and 
statute  law  of  England  prevailed  when  the  provincial  law  was  silent, 
although  there  was  a  chronic  battle  as  to  the  statute  law,  despite  the 
provision  in  the  charter  that  no  laws  should  be  passed  repugnant  to 
those  of  the  mother  country.4 

The  business  of  the  provincial  court  was  large,  for  the  people  were 
of  a  litigious  spirit,  and  this  operated  in  favor  of  the  creation  of  a 
much  better  class  of  lawyers  than  in  Virginia.  Few  lawyers  were 
regularly  called  to  the  bar,  but  there  were  many  of  deserved  emi 
nence.  There  were,  of  course,  where  the  regulations  were  so  loose, 
many  adventurers  also  who  found  a  profit  in  legal  pursuits  through 
the  defective  land-titles  which  abounded  in  all  the  colonies,  and  which 
they  bought  up  and  defended ;  but  this  element  did  not  seriously 
affect  the  good  standing  of  the  profession,  which  drew  to  its  ranks 
many  men  of  ability  and  position^5 

The  government  was  inexpensive  and  taxation  light,  the  only  com 
plaint  being  in  regard  to  quit-rents  and  Church  dues,  both  of  which 

1  Burnaby,  pp.  67,  68  ;   Alsop ;   M'Mahon,  Hist.  View ;  Eddis,  Letters  ;   Bacon, 
Laws  of  Maryland;  Smyth,  ii.,  182. 

2  Sot- Weed  Factor,  p.  15. 

3  Burnaby,  pp.  68,  69 ;  Eddis  ;  Maryland  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  vol.  ii.,  Brown's  Civil 
Liberty ;  Kalm's  Travels,  ii.,  28  ;  Bozman. 

*  M'Mahon,  Hist.  View.  6  Eddis ;  Georgia  Hist.  Coll.,  Itin.  Observations. 


116  BISTORT  OF  THE 

were  considered  high.1  The  exemption  from  taxation  granted  by  the 
charter  existed  only  until  commerce  became  valuable,  and  in  1661  rev 
enue  was  raised  for  the  Crown  by  customs  duties.  These  restrictions 
helped  to  cripple  trade,  but  did  not  weigh  with  great  direct  severity 
upon  the  people.2  The  currency  was  in  a  wretched  condition.  Al 
though  a  mint  had  been  established  as  early  as  the  year  1662,  tobacco 
was  the  common  medium  of  exchange ;  and  in  the  eighteenth  century 
the  loss  of  specie  induced  large  emissions  of  paper  money,  which  at 
once  depreciated,  and  was  of  a  value  so  uncertain  that  it  was  not  re 
ceived  in  the  western  counties.  In  1733  the  state  of  affairs  was  so 
bad  in  this  respect  that  it  was  found  necessary  to  declare  tobacco  * 
legal  tender.8 

The  principal  burdens  of  government — an  army  and  navy — were,  as 
elsewhere,  entirely  wanting.  There  was  a  great  love  of  military  titles ; 
but  the  militia  was  inefficient,  badly  organized,  and  ill-armed.* 

With  the  exception  of  the  legal  profession,  the  possible  occupa 
tions  in  Maryland  were  almost  wholly  agricultural,  and  in  this  respect 
the  example  of  Virginia  was  closely  copied.  In  the  seventeenth  cen 
tury  nothing  was  raised  for  export  but  tobacco,  and  the  over-cultiva 
tion  of  this  staple  was  so  great  that  the  King  attempted  to  check  it. 
Even  royal  interference  was  fruitless.  Tobacco  continued  to  be  the 
great  interest,  and  brought  in  its  train  the  usual  difficulties  of  specu 
lation  and  enormous  profits,  alternating  with  over-production  and  low 
prices,  which  caused  conspiracies  to  destroy  the  crop,  and  thus  restore 
artificially  the  value  of  the  staple.6  Despite  the  injurious  effects  of 
the  cultivation  of  tobacco,  it  remained  the  only  solid  staple  until  the 
close  of  the  French  war.  The  average  annual  export  amounted  to 
thirty  thousand  hogsheads,  and  was  worth  one  hundred  and  forty  thou 
sand  pounds,  and  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution  it  had  risen  to  nearly 
fifty  thousand  hogsheads."  Prior  to  that  period,  however,  an  impor 
tant  change  had  set  in.  Taught  by  their  losses,  by  the  low  state  of 
agriculture,  by  the  exhaustion  of  their  land,  and  by  the  example  of 
their  northern  neighbors,  the  planters  began  to  turn  from  tobacco  to 
grain.  The  improvement  was  rapid  and  marked.  When  the  contest 

1  Georgia  Hist.  Coll.,  ibid.,  Itin.  Observations.  *  M'Mahon'a  Hist  View. 

1  Ibid. ;  M'Sherry,  p.  117;  Georgia  Hist.  Coll.,  ibid. 
4  Georgia  Hist.  Coll.,  ibid. 

'  M'Mahon,  Hist.  View  ;  Alsop ;    M'Sherry,  p.  87 ;  Neill,  p.  204 ;  Gentleman's 
Magazine  for  1732. 
•  Smyth,  ii.,  140 ;  Burnaby,  p.  68 ;  M'Sherry,  p.  117. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  117 

with  England  opened,  Maryland  exported  six  hundred  thousand  bush 
els  of  wheat — a  larger  amount  than  that  sent  from  the  great  State  of 
Virginia.  A  large  foreign  trade  in  wheat  and  flour  sprang  up  in  Bal 
timore,  and,  in  addition  to  the  other  exports,  which  were  similar  to 
those  of  Virginia,  speedily  reduced  the  importance  of  tobacco.1 

The  evil  results  of  this  absorption  in  the  growth  and  sale  of  to 
bacco  were  conspicuous,  as  in  Virginia,  by  the  dearth  of  manufactures. 
Fruitless  efforts  had  been  made  to  establish  them  in  the  seventeenth 
century ;  but  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution  petty  household  indus 
tries  were  all  that  had  grown  up,  and  the  people  of  Maryland  were 
clothed  almost  entirely  in  English  stuffs,  and  obtained  from  the  moth 
er  country  almost  every  article  of  either  luxury  or  necessity  which 
could  not  be  actually  grown  on  the  plantations.2  A  few  vineyards 
were  successfully  cultivated,  but  were  of  interest  chiefly  as  experi 
ments.3  Copper-mines  were  opened  in  the  year  1742;  but  the  only 
important  industry  which  was  not  purely  agricultural  was  the  mining 
and  smelting  of  iron,  which  toward  the  close  of  the  colonial  period 
had  become  large  and  valuable.  Many  forges  were  then  in  operation, 
and  the  annual  production  had  risen  to  twenty-five  thousand  tons  of 
pig,  and  five  hundred  tons  of  bar,  iron.4 

The  lack  of  industries  and  the  narrowly  limited  occupations  of  the 
people  had,  during  most  of  the  colonial  period,  the  same  depressing 
and  dwarfing  influence  upon  traffic,  and  all  methods  of  trade,  which 
was  so  marked  a  feature  in  Virginia.  There  was  no  foreign  commerce 
conducted  in  the  usual  way  by  merchants  and  factors.  There  were  a 
few  shopkeepers  in  the  towns,  the  familiar  store-keeper  in  the  little 
villages  which  sprang  up  at  the  county  seats,  and  strolling  peddlers  and 
mechanics.  All  this  was,  of  course,  very  petty  and  insignificant.  The 
commerce  was  wholly  carried  on  by  the  planters  themselves,  who  all 
transacted  business  on  their  own  individual  account.  On  the  great 
plantations,  which  were  villages  in  themselves,  the  landlord  usually 
kept  a  store,  from  which  he  and  his  servants  were  supplied.  All  the 
plantations  on  the  rivers  had  their  little  wharves,  and  constituted  small 
ports,  where  the  English  merchantmen  touched  to  gather  a  cargo  and 


1  Smyth,  ii.,  110,  112, 128, 140,  186  ;  Eddis,  Grain  raised  by  Germans  ;  Georgia 
Hist.  Soc.,  ibid. ;  Rochefoucauld,  ii.,  355. 

8  Burnaby,  p.  68;  M'Mahon,  Hist.  View ;  M'Sherry,  p.  116;  Magazine  of  Amer. 
Hist.,  ii.,  104.  3  Burnaby,  p.  70. 

4  M'Mahon,  Hist.  View;  Abbe*  Robin, p.  98 ;  M'Sherry,  p.  151. 


i!8  HISTORY  OF  THE 

leave  the  manufactures  of  the  Old  World.  Tobacco  was  brought  down 
from  the  interior  by  mules  attached  to  an  axle  run  through  the  hogs 
head.  This  isolated  system  of  trade  left  the  planters  very  much  at 
the  mercy  of  their  English  correspondents ;  but  it  suited  their  lordly 
tastes,  so  they  clung  to  it  for  more  than  a  century,  and  successfully 
prevented  any  innovation.1 

Notwithstanding  this  conservatism,  however,  a  change  came  at  last 
in  the  period  prior  to  the  Revolution,  and  was  due,  as  in  the  case  of 
the  grain  exports,  to  the  example  of  the  Middle  States.  The  altera 
tion  showed  itself  in  the  growth  of  towns,  which  had  no  existence  so 
long  as  the  rude  system  of  solitary  barter  was  successfully  maintained. 
The  first  town,  so  called,  was  the  little  village  of  St.  Mary's,  founded 
in  1634,  as  the  capital  of  the  colony,  by  Leonard  Calvert.a  Fifteen 
years  later  the  Puritan  exiles  from  Virginia  founded  Providence.  At 
the  period  of  the  Restoration  there  were  still  no  towns.  St.  Mary's 
had  fifty  or  sixty  houses,  and  Providence  was  a  still  smaller  village.3 
The  revolution  of  1689  altered  at  once  the  fate  of  the  two  settle 
ments.  The  capital  was  transferred  to  Providence,  soon  rechristened 
Annapolis,  and  as  the  town  of  the  Puritans  rose  with  the  aid  of  of 
ficial  standing,  the  little  village  of  the  Roman  Catholics  declined,  was 
deserted,  and  finally  relapsed  into  the  silence  of  the  wilderness.4  At 
the  new  capital  a  state-house,  court-house,  armory,  and  academy  were 
soon  built;  and  in  the  year  1708  Annapolis  was  made  a  city.6  All 
this,  however,  was  artificial  at  best,  and  the  town  showed  no  real  vital 
ity  until  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  when  a  small  trade, 
carried  on  by  two  or  three  vessels,  sprang  up.  Thus  Annapolis  be 
came  a  centre  of  trade  as  well  as  fashion,  grew  more  rapidly,  and  at 
the  timo  of  the  Revolution,  although  still  small,  had  become  one  of 
the  prettiest  and  pleasantest  towns  in  America.  The  new  public 
buildings  were  handsome,  particularly  the  state-house,  although  end 
less  quarrels  with  the  Assembly  brought  the  Governor's  palaoe,  de 
signed  on  a  scale  of  great  magnificence  for  a  province,  to  an  untimely 
end.  The  unpaved  streets  radiated  from  the  Province  House,  among 

1  Burnaby,  p.  66  ;  M'Mahon,  Hist.  View ;  Neill,  pp.  199,  200 ;  Georgia  Hist.  Coll., 
Itinerant  Observations ;  Magazine  of  Amer.  Hist.,  ii.,  104. 
8  Relation  of  the  Successful  Beginnings  in  Maryland. 

3  Ridgely,  Annals  of  Annapolis  ;  M'Mahon's  Hist.  View ;  M'Sherry,  p.  83 ;  Geon 
gia  Hist.  Coll.,  Itin.  Observations. 

4  Ridgely,  Annals  of  Annapolis  ;  Neill,  pp.  200,  206,  207. 
J  Ridgely,  Annals  of  Annapolis. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  119 

well-built  houses  standing  in  the  midst  of  handsome  gardens,  with 
here  and  there  an  open  field.1 

The  ill  effects  of  having  no  towns  had  attracted,  of  course,  general 
notice,  and  an  effort  was  made  to  remedy  it  by  legislative  enactment. 
Owing  to  more  efficient  natural  causes,  the  attempt  met  in  some  in 
stances  with  success.  Several  small  and  thriving  villages  grew  up  at 
different  points ;  and  one  of  the  paper  towns,  called  Baltimore,  in  com 
pliment  to  the  proprietary,  and  founded  in  1729,  developed  with  such 
rapidity  that  it  held,  forty  years  later,  the  first  place  in  the  province, 
and  was  one  of  the  half-dozen  considerable  towns  on  the  continent. 
In  1774  Baltimore  had  a  population  of  between  fifteen  and  twenty 
thousand  inhabitants,  was  the  centre  of  an  important  trade  in  wheat 
and  flour,  and  drew  by  the  rivers  from  the  back  districts  of  Pennsyl 
vania  the  products  of  the  Middle  States  for  exports.  Commerce  and 
prosperity  induced  the  erection  of  new  and  handsome  houses;  but 
the  rapid  growth  made  the  appearance  of  the  town  rough  and  crude. 
There  was  no  pavement,  and  no  police  or  street  lighting  until  after 
the  Revolution ;  there  were  pools  of  stagnant  water  in  the  heart  of 
the  town,  and  in  autumn  and  spring  the  mud  rendered  the  main 
streets  almost  impassable.2  Here,  however,  was  the  source  of  a  pros 
perity  and  a  form  of  interest  and  of  occupation  quite  at  variance  with 
the  Virginian  system,  and  introducing  a  small  but  important  element 
of  northern  existence  into  the  midst  of  the  great  planters.  The  im 
mediate  effect  upon  the  colony  was  not  striking,  but  it  was  wide 
spread  and  important  when  the  province  became  a  State. 

Only  one  great  interest  and  pursuit  remain  now  to  be  considered — 
religion  and  the  clergy.  In  religious  matters  the  origin  of  Maryland 
led,  as  has  already  been  said,  to  the  existence  of  peculiar  features, 
which  are  essential  to  an  understanding  of  her  social  condition. 
From  the  time  when  Leonard  Calvert  took  possession  of  the  country 
in  the  name  of  our  Saviour,8  the  history  of  Maryland  consisted  of 
strenuous  efforts  on  the  part  of  the  Roman  Catholic  founders,  backed 
by  the  influence  of  the  proprietary,  to  maintain  themselves  against  the 
attacks  of  the  more  numerous  Protestants.  As  a  minority  they  ad 
vocated,  and  when  in  power  carried  out,  a  policy  of  toleration.  In  the 

1  Smyth,  ii.,  185  ;  Burnaby,  p.  66 ;  Neill,  p.  205  ;  Eddis ;  Penn.  Hist.  Mag.,  i.,  Jour 
nal  of  William  Black. 

*  Griffiths,  Annals  of  Bait. ;  Smyth,  ii.,  186  ;  Brissot,  p.  365;  M'Sherry,  p.  112? 
Eddis;  Rochefoucauld,  ii.,  129. 

3  A  Relation  of  Maryland. 


120  HISTORY  OF  THE 

dark  days  of  the  Commonwealth  they  fell  beneath  the  iron  hand  of 
the  Puritans.  The  return  of  the  Stuarts  brought  back  the  old  policy, 
and  instead  of  Puritans,  the  Catholics  had  now  to  face  a  new  opposi 
tion,  composed  of  real  or  pretended  members  of  the  Church  of  Eng 
land.  The  triumph  of  William  and  Mary  brought  permanent  suprem 
acy  to  the  Protestant  party,  and  the  establishment  of  the  English 
Church.  The  Catholics  lost  all  political  power.  They  were  made 
ineligible  to  office,  disfranchised,  and  obliged  to  pay  a  double  land- 
tax,  in  addition  to  tithes  for  the  support  of  the  Church  of  England.1 
The  day  had  gone  by  for  direct  religious  persecution ;  and  although 
public  worship  in  forms  of  the  Roman  Church  was  rigidly  suppress 
ed,  and  the  powerful  and  rich  organizations  of  Jesuits  dissolved,  there 
•was  no  interference  with  private  chapels  built  and  maintained  by 
wealthy  planters  of  the  proscribed  faith.2  Oppressed  by  taxes,  hostile 
to  the  Church  of  England,  and  galled  by  the  disfavor  shown  to  their 
religion  by  government,  the  Catholics  of  Maryland  were  by  no  means 
a  loyal  body  of  subjects.  Many,  no  doubt,  like  the  father  of  Charles 
Carroll,  thought  seriously  of  retirement  to  the  dominions  of  France. 
At  the  time  of  the  French  war  rumors  were  rife  that  the  Papists  in 
tended  to  rise,  and  many  of  them  certainly  rejoiced  at  the  defeat  of 
Braddock.  As  may  be  supposed,  they  all  strongly  espoused  the 
patriotic  side  when  the  difficulties  began  with  the  mother  country.8 
At  the  period  of  the  Revolution  the  Catholics,  who  had  founded  the 
colony,  formed  a  comparatively  small  minority  of  the  whole  pop 
ulation,  but  were  still  a  numerous  and  respectable  body,  comprising 
many  of  the  oldest,  best,  and  most  important  families  in  the  province.4 
The  Church  which  finally  drove  Catholicism  to  the  wall  was,  per 
haps,  as  contemptible  an  ecclesiastical  organization  as  history  can 
show.  It  had  all  the  vices  of  the  Virginian  Church,  without  one  of 

1  Neill,  Terra  Maria?,  p.  215  ;  Eddis. 

2  Magazine  of  Amer.  Hist,  ii.,  104 ;  Smyth,  ii.,  180. 

3  Neill,  p.  21 5 ;  Maryland  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  i.,  Allen's  Who  were  the  early  Set 
tlers  of  Maryland. 

4  The  authorities  are  very  conflicting  in  regard  to  the  number  and  quality  of  the 
Catholics.     Official  reports  and  official  and  Church  writers  represent  them  as  in 
significant  in  numbers,  property,  and  position.     Outside  observers,  on  the  other 
hand,  speak  of  the  Catholics  as  numerous  and  highly  respectable.    For  the  former 
view,  see  Hammond,  in  Force's  Hist.  Tracts  ;  Anderson's  Hist,  of  Col.  Church,  ii., 
412 ;  Eddis ;  Maryland  Hist.  Soc.,  i.,  Allen's  thorough  and  elaborate  paper  on  the 
early  settlers  of  Maryland.     For  the  latter  view,  see  Smyth,  ii.,  180;   Burnaby; 
p.  69 ;  Abb6  Robin,  p.  101. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  121 

its  safeguards  or  redeeming  qualities.  From  the  early  days,  when  a 
Jamestown  minister  came  to  Kent  Island,  it  had  always  maintained 
itself  in  a  small  but  safe  way.1  Before  the  revolution  of  1688,  the 
Rev.  John  Yeo  addressed  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  the  follow 
ing  "  rude  and  undigested  lines,"  to  acquaint  his  grace  "  with  the  de 
plorable  estate  and  condition  of  the  province  of  Maryland  for  want 
of  an  established  ministry.  Here  are  in  this  province  ten  or  twelve 
counties,  and  in  them  at  least  twenty  thousand  soules,  and  but  three 
Protestant  ministers  of  us  that  are  conformable  to  the  doctrine  and 
discipline  of  the  Church  of  England.  Others  there  are  (I  must  con 
fess)  that  runne  before  they  are  sent,  and  pretend  they  are  ministers 
of  the  Gospell,  that  never  had  a  legall  call  or  ordination  to  such  an 
holy  office ;  neither  (indeed)  are  they  qualified  for  it,  being,  for  the 
most  part,  such  as  never  understood  anything  of  learning,  and  yet 
take  upon  them  to  be  dispensers  of  the  Word,  and  to  administer  the 
Sacrament  of  Baptisme ;  and  sow  seeds  of  division  amongst  the  peo 
ple,  and  no  law  provided  for  the  suppression  of  such  in  this  province. 
Society  here  is  in  great  necessitie  of  able  and  learned  men  to  con 
fute  the  gainsayers,  especially  having  soe  many  profest  enemies  as  the 
Popish  priests  and  Jesuits  are,  who  are  incouraged  and  provided  for. 
And  the  Quaker  takes  care  and  provides  for  those  that  are  speakers 
in  their  conventicles ;  but  noe  care  is  taken  or  provision  made  for  the 
building-up  Christians  in  the  Protestant  religion,  by  means  whereof 
not  only  many  dayly  fall  away  either  to  Popery,  Quakerisme,  or  Pha- 
naticisme,  but  also  the  Lord's  day  is  prophaned,  religion  despised,  and 
all  notorious  vices  committed,  so  that  it  is  become  a  Sodom  of  un- 
cleannesse  and  a  pest-house  of  iniquity."2  The  whole  matter  was  re 
ferred  to  Lord  Baltimore,  who  pointed  to  the  toleration  acts  of  1649 
and  1676,  said  that  provision  had  been  made  for  four  clergymen  of 
the  English  Church,  and  declined  further  interference.3  It  was  this 
Church — which  had  not  in  itself  enough  force  or  enough  popular  sup 
port  to  cure  such  a  condition  of  affairs — that  finally  took  advantage  of 
the  strong  arm  of  the  government  to  overthrow  the  toleration  policy, 
and  establish  itself  as  part  of  the  state  upon  its  ruins.  An  act  was 
passed  to  establish  the  Church,  fixing  the  marriage  fees,  and  laying  a 
tax  of  forty  pounds  of  tobacco  per  poll  for  the  support  of  ministers.4 

1  Allen,  Maryland  Hist.  Soc.,  i. 

2  Anddoon,  Hist.  Col.  Church,  gives  this  letter  in  full,  ii.,  395 ;  see  also  Neill, 
Terra  Manae,  p.  138.  *  Neill,  p.  138. 

4  Trott's  Laws  of  Col.  Church,  p.  172 ;  Georgia  Hist.  Coll.,  Itin.  Observations. 


122  HISTORY  OF  THE 

Brick  parsonages  were  afterward  built  for  the  new  pastors,  and  the 
worthy  Bray  came  out  at  once  as  commissary.  He  struggled  with 
every  kind  of  difficulty ;  strove  manfully  to  correct  the  evil  living 
of  the  clergy ;  had  his  powers  questioned  at  every  point,  and  went 
back  to  England,  leaving  only  the  memory  of  his  example.1  The  in 
crease  of  power  and  profit  thus  obtained  by  the  Church  did  not  im 
prove  its  morals  or  general  character.  A  clergyman,  writing  in  1714, 
describes  the  disregard  of  holy  things  as  universal ;  the  Sacraments  as 
neglected,  and  sometimes  not  celebrated  at  all ;  the  manners  of  all 
classes  as  dissolute;  and  the  laws  of  marriage  despised.  Another 
says  the  clergy  were  ill  paid,  and  had  to  travel  great  distances  to  per 
form  service  in  various  parishes,  while  Colonel  Hart,  the  Governor,  re 
ported  that  some  of  the  ministers  were  a  scandal  to  their  profession.8 
The  Church  had  no  government  of  any  kind.  Presentation  and  in 
duction  were  in  the  hands  of  the  proprietary,  or  his  representative,  the 
Governor.3  The  commissary  had  merely  an  advisory  power  in  regard 
to  licenses,  and  his  remonstrances  were  unheeded,  while,  as  a  rule,  the 
Governor  would  not  let  him  even  enter  the  province.4  The  Assembly 
made  various  efforts  to  remedy  the  evils  by  establishing  a  spiritual 
court  of  laymen ;  but  the  opposition  of  the  clergy  prevented  the  as 
sent  of  the  Crown,  on  the  ground  that  it  would  result  in  Presbyte- 
rianism.6  The  clergy,  on  their  side,  petitioned  for  a  bishop,  and  the 
Bishop  of  London  directed  them  to  choose  one  of  their  own  number 
for  the  position.  They  thereupon  selected  one  Colebatch,  upon  whom 
a  writ  of  ne  exeat  regno  was  immediately  served,  so  that  he  could  not 
leave  the  province.8  Not  only  was  the  influence  of  the  commissary,  so 
valuable  in  Virginia,  wholly  lacking,  but  even  the  rude  check  afforded 
by  the  power  of  the  Virginian  vestries  was  wanting.  In  Maryland,  the 
vestry,  consisting  of  twelve  members,  besides  the  wardens,  was  utterly 
powerless.7  A  clergyman  once  inducted  in  a  living  could  not  be  re 
moved,  nor  even  controlled,  no  matter  how  abominable  his  conduct 
might  be.8 

1  Anderson,  ii.,  412;  Neill,  Terra  Marias,  p.  188. 
8  Anderson,  HI,  181, 182. 

3  Burnaby,  p.  69;  M'Mahon,  Hist.  View;  Neill,  p.  213;  Eddis;  Massachusetts 
Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  I.,  vii.,  202 ;  Anderson,  iii.,  178. 

4  Anderson,  Hi.,  178,  190;  Burnaby,  p.  69. 

6  Anderson,  iii.,  180  and  ff. ;  Massachusetts  Hist.  Coll.,  ibid. 

•  Anderson,  iii.,  182, 190.  7  Burnaby,  p.  70. 

8  Neill,  p.  217,  note ;  Massachusetts  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  ibid. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  123 

Maryland,  like  Virginia,  had  also  the  misfortune  of  not  receiving 
ministers  through  the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel. 
The  patronage  was  badly  administered,  unworthy  men  were  frequent 
ly  appointed,  and  the  whole  organization  closely  resembled  a  corrupt 
civil  service.1  In  the  year  1753  a  visiting  clergyman  wrote  to  the 
Bishop  of  London  that  "  the  general  character  of  the  clergy  is  wretch 
edly  bad.  It  is  readily  confessed  that  there  are  some  in  the  province 
whose  behavior  is  unexceptionable  and  exemplary ;  but  their  number 
seems  to  be  very  small  in  comparison — they  appearing  here  and  there 
like  lights  shining  in  a  dark  place.  It  would  really,  my  lord,  make 
the  ears  of  a  sober  heathen  tingle  to  hear  the  stories  that  were  told 
me  by  many  serious  persons  of  several  clergymen  in  the  neighbor 
hood  of  the  parish  where  I  visited ;  but  I  still  hope  that  some  abate 
ment  may  be  fairly  made  on  account  of  the  prejudices  of  those  who 
related  them."2.  It  is  not  easy  to  conceive  the  utter  degradation  of 
the  mass  of  the  Maryland  clergy.  Secure  in  their  houses  and  glebes, 
with  a  tax  settled  by  law,  and  collected  by  the  sheriffs3  for  their 
benefit,  they  set  decency  and  public  opinion  at  defiance.  They  hunt 
ed,  raced  horses,  drank,  gambled,  and  were  the  parasites  and  boon 
companions  of  the  wealthy  planters.  A  common  jest  was  the  ques 
tion: 

"  Who  is  a  monster  of  the  first  renown  ?" 

"  A  lettered  sot,  a  drunkard  in  a  gown."* 

They  extorted  marriage  fees  from  the  poor  by  breaking  off  in  the 
middle  of  the  service,  and  refusing  to  continue  until  they  were  paid.6 
They  became  a  by- word  in  the  other  colonies,  and  every  itinerant  cler 
gyman  who  was  a  low  fellow  and  a  disgrace  to  his  profession  passed 
under  the  cant  name  of  a  "  Maryland  parson."6 

The  first  and  the  only  beneficial  result  of  this  contemptible  clergy 
was  the  spread  of  the  dissenting  sects.  In  the  year  1657  the  Quak 
ers  first  appeared,  and  fell  at  once  beneath  the  relentless  rule  of  the 
Puritans  then  in  power.  In  the  simple  language  of  the  law,  they 

1  Meade's  Old  Churches  of  Virginia,  ii.,  351 ;  Anderson,  iii.,  178. 

2  Meade,  ibid.,  p.  352;  Bishop  Meade  entirely  concurs  with  this  statement  from 
Dr.  Chandler's  letter. 

3  Eddis ;  Burnaby,  p.  69  ;  M'Sherry,  p.  117 ;  Neill,  p.  217. 

4  Neill,  p.  213;  Coke's  Sermon  in  Baltimore,  1784,  published  in  London ;  Allen's 
Sketches  in  Sprague's  Episcopal  Clergy. 

6  Kalm's  Travels,  l748-'52,  ii.,  28. 

8  Grayson,  Memoirs  of  a  Life  passed  chiefly  in  Pennsylvania,  p.  102. 


124  HISTORY  OF  THE 

were  "  to  be  whipped  from  constable  to  constable,  out  of  the  prov 
ince."  Those  who  received  them  were  fined  and  whipped.  They 
held  up  against  persecution,  however,  and  the  Restoration  brought 
relief.  The  first  general  meeting  was  held  under  the  auspices  of 
Fox  in  1672;  congregations  were  gathered,  and  the  Quakers  in 
creased  and  throve.  They  formed  an  excellent  element  in  the  pop 
ulation,  encouraged  trade,  and  were  thrifty  and  industrious  citizens. 
In  1711  their  general  meetings,  under  the  stimulus  of  the  Established 
Church,  had  become  so  large  that  laws  were  passed  to  suppress  drink 
ing  at  them ;  and  they  finally  grew  to  be  a  kind  of  annual  market  or 
exchange,  and  places  of  popular  resort.1  The  same  spread  and  prog 
ress,  in  a  less  degree,  attended  the  other  sects.  Scotch-Irish  Pres 
byterians  began  to  come  toward  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  cen 
tury  ;  at  a  later  period  Methodism  met  with  great  success  and  accep 
tance  ;  and  in  every  county  dissenters  abounded.2 

How  much  harm  was  directly  caused  by  the  pernicious  example  of 
the  clergy  cannot,  of  course,  be  exactly  estimated,  but  there  is  no 
doubt  that  it  was  the  origin  of  the  religious  laxity  and  indifference 
which  prevailed  extensively.3  The  ministers  of  the  Church  were  not 
only  despised,  but  they  were  bitterly  disliked.  Early  in  the  century 
the  Assembly  did  all  in  its  power  to  reduce  their  emoluments,  and 
the  occasional  regulations  of  tobacco  debts  led  to  clerical  resistance, 
secret  appeals  to  England,  and  additional  unpopularity  in  conse 
quence.*  A  majority  of  the  population  belonged  to  other  sects,  and 
hated  the  Church  and  clergymen  for  whose  support  they  were  taxed. 
The  efforts  to  obtain  a  bishop  formed  another  grievance,  in  which  all 
laymen  of  every  denomination  shared.  In  all  these  matters  the  clergy 
displayed  a  short-sighted  indifference  to  public  feeling.  They  and  the 
officials  of  the  proprietary  were  the  only  Tories  almost  in  the  prov 
ince  ;  and  their  conduct,  and  the  condition  of  the  Established  Church, 
were  the  principal  causes  of  coldness  toward  the  mother  country,  and 
rendered  the  people  ready  to  join  in  any  opposition  to  English  rule.6 

1  Maryland  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  ii.,  Norris,  Early  Friends  in  Maryland ;  Neill,  Terra 
Mariae,  p.  138. 

8  Neill,  Terra  Mariae,  p.  219 ;  Maryland  Hist.  Soc.,  i.,  Allen. 

3  Neill,  pp.  213,  220;  Eddis.  4  Anderson,  iii.,  185, 191. 

6  Neill,  p.  215;  Georgia  Hist.  Coll.,  Itin.  Observations.  Eddis,  who  was  of  the 
official  class,  describes  the  clergy  as  fair,  with  no  pluralities,  and  no  altercation 
about  tithes ;  but  the  testimony  on  the  other  side  is  overwhelming,  and  all  one 
way,  and  even  Eddis  admits  the  unpopularity  of  bishops. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  125 

The  structure  of  Maryland  society  was  simple,  and  similar  to  that 
of  Virginia.  There  were  the  upper  and  middle  classes,  composed  of 
planters,  farmers,  and  merchants,  the  poor  whites  and  freedmen,  and 
the  servile  class.1  This  last  class  comprised  four  grades  —  African 
slaves,  convicts,  indented  servants,  and  what  were  called  "free- will  - 
ers."2  Slavery  in  Virginia  is  the  type  of  that  which  existed  in  all 
the  colonies.  It  was  modified  and  softened  as  one  travelled  north 
ward,  until  it  practically  disappeared  in  New  England,  while  in  the 
southern  colonies  its  worst  features  were  intensified.  The  condition 
of  the  slaves  deteriorated  as  their  numbers  increased.  In  Maryland 
the  Virginian  type  was  but  little  changed.  The  slaves  were  less  nu 
merous  in  proportion  to  the  whole  population ;  but  they  were  intro 
duced  at  an  early  day,  and  increased  so  rapidly  and  to  such  an  extent 
as  to  cause  great  anxiety,  so  that  their  importation  came  to  an  end 
before  the  Revolution.3  The  legislation  in  regard  to  them  had  the 
same  savage  character  as  in  Virginia;  yet,  although  there  was,  of 
course,  more  or  less  cruelty,  their  condition  and  treatment  were  good, 
on  the  whole.  They  appear  to  have  led  generally  an  easy  life,  and 
to  have  enjoyed  a  good  deal  of  individual  liberty,  and  met  with  rea 
sonable  justice  in  the  courts.4  The  distinction  of  race  was  careful 
ly  maintained,  and  marriages  between  low  white  women  and  negroes 
caused,  in  the  year  1663,  the  passage  of  a  law  making  such  women 
and  their  children  slaves.5  The  value  of  slaves  in  growing  tobacco, 
and  the  luxury  of  their  service,  led  to  their  being  owned  in  large  num 
bers,  and  the  whites  made  them  their  chief  investments ;  but  slavery 
was  not  well  adapted  to  Maryland,  and  its  evils  were  strongly  felt,  so 
that  even  before  the  Revolution  public  opinion  began  to  tell  upon  the 
system.6 

Next  to  the  slaves,  but  separated  from  them  by  the  insurmountable 
barrier  of  race,  came  the  convicts.  The  forced  immigration  of  these 
undesirable  settlers  began  early,  assumed  large  proportions,  and  con 
tinued  long  after  it  had  been  stopped  in  the  other  colonies.7  They 
worked  on  the  roads  in  gangs,  loaded  with  irons,  and  were  extensive 
ly  employed  in  building  the  houses  of  the  great  planters.8  The  in 
dented  servants  differed  but  little  from  the  transported  criminals, 

1  Neill,  p.  211, 1763.  9  Eddis.  3  Neill,  p.  201 ;  Eddis. 

4  Neill,  p.  201 ;  Georgia  Hist.  Coll.,  Itin.  Observations ;  Eddis ;  Rochefoucauld, 
ii.,  282.  6  Neill,  p.  203. 

•  Ibid. ;  Rochefoucauld,  ii.,  290,  355,  357.  7  M'Mahon ;  Eddis. 

8  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  129 ;  Memoir  of  Col.  Thomas  White. 


126  HISTORY  OF  THE 

and  were,  in  fact,  chiefly  convicts  and  paupers.  Some  of  them  were 
kidnapped  as  children  in  England,  and  sold  in  Maryland.  They  were 
regarded  as  little  above  the  negroes ;  were  ill-treated ;  punished  for 
offences  by  additional  years  of  servitude ;  and,  if  they  escaped,  were 
sometimes  sentenced  to  work  in  the  iron  mines.1  The  women  of  this 
class — sometimes  kidnapped,  but  usually  of  doubtful  character — fared 
little  better  than  the  men,  and  were  often  forced  to  work  in  the 
fields.2  The  condition  of  the  "  f ree  -  willers,"  who  sold  themselves, 
was  hardly  superior  to  that  of  the  indented  servants.  They  were 
usually  deceived  in  their  contracts,  and  suffered  all  the  miseries  of 
serfdom,8 

When  the  term  of  servitude  expired  for  these  various  classes  of 
white  servants,  some  raised  themselves  by  their  own  exertions  to  a 
respectable  position,  and  were  absorbed  in  the  middle  class.  Others 
returned  to  England.  Very  few  turned  out  well,  and  the  majority  re 
mained  where  they  found  themselves,  and  formed  the  class  known  as 
"  poor  whites."4  This  class  was  shiftless,  ignorant,  idle,  and  improvi 
dent,  as  was  painfully  demonstrated  by  the  poor-houses  in  every  coun 
ty,  and  with  the  freedmen,  who  were  numerous  in  the  province,  com 
posed  the  criminal  portion  of  the  community.  There  was  less  crime 
in  Maryland  than  in  Virginia,  but  more  than  in  the  northern  colonies, 
from  the  fact  of  the  existence  of  such  a  class  as  has  just  been  de 
scribed.  Murder  was  rare,  but  robberies  were  numerous;  there  were 
highwaymen  in  the  thinly-settled  counties,  and  all  offences  were  pun 
ished  severely,  after  the  fashion  of  the  day,  by  hanging,  stripes  and 
exposure  in  the  pillory  or  stocks,  and  more  rarely  by  imprisonment.6 
The  better  sort  of  "  poor  whites,"  galled  by  the  inferiority  which  was 
the  badge  of  work  in  a  slave -holding  community,  were  constantly 
leaving  the  coast  region  and  pushing  out  upon  the  frontier,  where 
there  was  hope  of  improving  their  fortunes.  This  lowest  class  of 
freemen  was  at  no  time  an  important  portion  of  society,  and  had  no 
influence  of  any  sort.  They  were  simply  the  outcome  of  a  servile 
system  of  labor.6 

The  upper  and  middle  classes  differed  little  from  each  other,  or 
from  the  same  classes  in  Virginia.  The  former  was  less  compact,  less 
strong  in  every  way,  less  distinctively  marked,  and  less  representative 

>  Neill,  p.  201  and  ff. ;  Eddis.  9  Sot-Weed  Factor,  p.  7, 

»  Eddis.  4  Ibid. 

6  Huguenot  Family  in  Virginia,  p.  303 ;  Rochefoucauld,  ii.,  281, 282. 

•  Rochefoucauld,  ii.,  355. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  12 *l 

than  its  prototype  in  the  older  and  larger  colony ;  and  there  was  also 
in  Maryland  a  small  but  respectable  body  of  enterprising  merchants, 
some  of  whom  were  wealthy,  who  ranked  with  the  great  planters,  and 
increased  in  numbers  and  consideration  with  the  development  of  Bal 
timore.  With  these  exceptions,  the  social  system  of  the  two  higher 
and  governing  classes  was  almost  identical  with  that  of  Virginia, 
Any  general  description,  therefore,  applies  to  all  alike,  if  allowance  is 
made  for  the  differences  of  fortune  which  entailed  modifications  of 
an  unessential  sort,  and  of  degree  only. 

The  people  of  Maryland  were  practically  all  planters.  Their  plan 
tations  were  scattered  through  the  forests,  generally  along  the  banks 
of  the  rivers,  which  formed  the  principal  means  of  communication. 
Passengers  for  England  were  picked  up  by  the  passing  vessel  at  the 
plantation  wharves,  and  all  trade  was  carried  on  by  water,1  The  fate 
of  those  who  journeyed  by  land  was  much  less  agreeable.  The  roads, 
which  were  none  of  the  best,  wound  through  thick  woods ;  rivers  were 
crossed  by  ferries  of  a  rude  and  often  unsafe  kind ;  and  the  inns  were 
mere  stopping-places  or  shelters,  dirty,  uncomfortable,  and  with  most 
wretched  living.2  The  method  of  getting  from  place  to  place  was 
usually  on  horseback;  but  Maryland  was  not  so  absolutely  deficient 
as  Virginia  in  this  respect,  and  post-chaises,  with  horses  and  servants, 
could  be  hired.3  At  the  best,  however,  travelling  was  difficult  and 
slow,  and  rarely  indulged  in  except  as  a  matter  of  necessity. 

The  plantations,  isolated  and  scattered,  were  generally  large,  and 
closely  resembled  a  village.  The  family  mansion  stood  in  the  centre, 
flanked  by  numerous  out-buildings  and  storehouses,  and  surrounded 
by  the  straggling  quarters  of  the  negroes.4  The  houses  were  com 
monly  of  wood,  but  the  parsonages  were  always  of  brick,  while  on  the 
great  plantations  the  manor-houses  were  usually  of  brick  or  stone. 
These  last  were  large,  sometimes  of  great  size,  with  heavy  walls. 
They  covered  a  great  deal  of  ground,  and  were,  as  a  rule,  not  more 
than  two  stories  in  height.  The  exterior  was  often  bare  and  taste 
less;  but  in  many  instances  the  roof  was  broken  with  gables,  and 
these,  with  the  deeply  sunk  and  mullioned  windows,  presented  a  very 
picturesque  appearance.  Near  Annapolis  were  many  pretty  villas, 
with  handsome  grounds  and  gardens.  The  interiors  were  attractive 

1  Neill,  Terra  Mariae,  p.  207. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  208 ;  Journal  of  Witham  Marshe ;  Eddis. 

3  Burnaby,  p.  73. 

4  Abbe  Robin,  p.  103 ;  Rochefoucauld,  ii.,  128 ;  Neill,  p.  199. 


128  HISTORY  OF  THE 

and  spacious.  Large,  low  rooms,  wide  panelled  halls,  sometimes 
hung  with  portraits,  wainscots  everywhere  of  rare  hard  woods,  and 
convenient  chambers,  were  common  to  all.  Handsome  furniture,  im 
ported  from  England,  great  open  fireplaces,  and  sconces  with  candles 
made  from  the  wax  of  myrtle-berries,  gave  an  air  of  comfort  and  lux 
ury.  Pewter  was  in  common  use  for  the  table ;  but  there  was  always 
a  state  service  of  plate,  sometimes  of  great  beauty  and  value.1 

Despite  the  isolation  of  their  lives,  and  the  rough  state  of  socie 
ty,  much  style  was  maintained.  The  table  was  spread  with  a  rude 
abundance,  and  the  cheapness  of  provisions  was  one  efficient  cause  of 
the  lack  of  economy.2  Hospitality  was  universal  and  excessive,  for  the 
usual  solitude  made  the  rare  company  of  strangers  an  object  of  com 
petition,  and  they  were  welcomed  without  much  discrimination  as  to 
whether  they  were  from  jail  or  college.3 

Both  men  and  women  dressed  expensively,  in  the  latest  English 
fashions,  held  the  French  barber  in  high  estimation,  had  their  slaves 
richly  clothed,  drove  light  and  handsome  carriages,  kept  innumerable 
horses,  and  lived  well  in  every  way.4  The  extravagant  expenditure, 
unstinted  hospitality,  and  free  living  did  much  to  impair  the  fortunes 
of  the  planters.  The  laws  show  the  prevalence  of  bankruptcy,  and 
great  land-owners  were  often  obliged  to  fly  from  their  English  cred 
itors,  and  leave  their  estates  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  overseers  and 
indented  servants.6 

The  people  were,  as  a  rule,  industrious,  prosperous,  shrewd,  and 
penetrating,  and  the  general  morals  were  good  ;  but  the  wealthier 
planters  were  very  indolent.  They  spoke  English  well;  there  was  a 
singular  uniformity  of  speech  and  absence  of  dialects,  except  in  the 
more  remote  and  thinly  settled  counties,  despite  the  mixture  of  races, 
and  in  manners  they  were  frequently  easy  and  well-bred.6 

Life  in  the  back  districts  was,  of  course,  much  rougher  than  in 
the  region  near  the  coast.  On  the  frontier  and  in  the  thinly  settled 
counties  the  houses  were  built  of  logs,  with  only  two  rooms,  and  the 

1  For  this  description  of  the  great  houses  and  their  furniture,  see  Abbe  Robin, 
p.  103  ;  Eddis  ;  Memoir  of  Colonel  Thomas  White ;  and  Magazine  of  Amer.  Hist., 
i:.,  104.  9  Neill,  p.  206  ;  Eddis. 

*  Neill,  ibid.;   Georgia  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  Itin.  Observations;   Sot- Weed  Factor, 
pp.  4,  5 ;  Ridgely,  Annals  of  Annapolis. 

4  Ridgely,  ibid. ;  Abbe"  Robin,  p.  104;  Neill,  p.  205;  Eddis. 

•  Neill,  p.  204 ;  Eddis. 

4  Alsop ;  Neill,  ibid. ;  Eddis  ;  Rochefoucauld,  ii.,  360. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  129 

food  was  usually  Indian  meal.1  All  the  magnificence  of  the  planters, 
too,  had  its  unfinished  side,  and  the  imitation  of  English  vices  and 
follies  was  often  of  a  very  poor  sort.2 

The  amusements  were  the  same  as  in  Virginia,  and  made  up  in 
quantity  what  they  lacked  in  quality.  The  young  men  were  devoted 
to  fox-hunting  and  horse-racing,  while  cock-fighting  and  gaming  were 
universally  popular;  and  there  was  much  card-playing  and  many  dances, 
sometimes  of  a  very  wild  kind,  at  the  country  houses.  The  great  day 
for  meeting  was  when  the  county  court  was  in  session.  The  little 
county  town  was  then  filled  with  a  large  crowd,  who  drank  freely  at  the 
inn,  gamed  and  betted,  and  wound  up  their  day's  pleasure  by  fighting.3 

The  gayety  and  fashion  of  the  colony  centred  at  Annapolis,  where 
the  government  officials  lived  and  the  Assembly  met.  Many  of  the 
wealthy  planters  and  merchants  had  both  a  town  and  country  house  ; 
and  in  autumn  the  great  coach,  imported  from  London,  made  of  ma 
hogany,  and  leather  topped,  was  brought  out,  the  family  was  packed 
in,  the  coachman  and  footman  mounted  the  high  box,  and  they  drove 
down  to  the  capital.4  Here  there  was  no  lack  of  amusements.  There 
was  a  jockey  club  and  annual  races,  a  South  River  club,  with  a  club 
house  for  fishing-parties  and  picnics.  There  were  assemblies  once  in 
a  fortnight,  grand  balls  given  by  the  Governor  on  the  birthnight  of  the 
King  and  the  Proprietary,  and  when  some  victory,  such  as  Culloden, 
occurred,  there  was  general  feasting  and  merry-making,  illuminations 
and  processions,  in  which  all  joined,  with  a  Punch-and-Judy  show  for 
the  populace.  At  all  parties  there  was  card-playing  as  well  as  dan 
cing,  and  elaborate  suppers.  Excursions  down  the  bay  were  a  favorite 
diversion ;  and  at  Christmas  society  assembled  at  the  nearest  country- 
seats  and  celebrated  the  season  in  the  wonted  English  fashion.  The 
Virginia  comedians  appeared  in  1752;  and  in  1760  a  theatre  was 
opened,  which,  with  the  company,  was  under  the  especial  patronage 
of  the  Governor.  The  patron  saint-days  of  the  various  races  were 
carefully  observed,  and  the  tutelary  divinity,  Saint  Tarnina,  had  a  so 
ciety,  founded  in  her  honor,  which  gave  balls  and  masquerades.  Mar 
riages  were  always  celebrated  at  the  house,  and  were  succeeded  in 
variably  by  dancing,  supper,  and  cards.6 

1  Eddis.  2  Neill,  p.  205 ;  Sot- Weed  Factor,  p.  7. 

3  Sot- Weed  Factor,  p.  15;  Neill,  pp.  210,  212;  Journal  of  Witham  Marshe; 
Rochefoucauld,  ii.,  294.  *  Magazine  of  Amer.  Hist.,  ii.,  104. 

6  Ridgely,  Annals  of  Annapolis ;  Smyth,  ii.,  185 ;  Eddis  ;  Magazine  of  Amer. 
Hist,  ii.,  104. 


130  HISTORY  OF  THE 

One  of  the  Virginian  commissioners  who  came  with  Governor 
Gooch  to  Annapolis  in  the  year  1744  has  left  a  detailed  account  of 
fashionable  life  in  the  little  provincial  capital.  He  and  his  party 
were,  of  course,  entertained  first  by  the  Governor.  Punch  was 
served  before  dinner,  which  was  of  great  plenty  and  variety,  with 
wines  of  every  description,  and  strawberries  and  ice-cream  as  rari 
ties.  This  entertainment  was  followed  by  a  series  of  dinners  of  a 
similar  character  at  all  the  principal  houses.  The  dinner  was  at  an 
early  hour  in  the  afternoon,  and  when  it  was  concluded  the  company 
sat  about  conversing  and  drinking  wine  until  supper  was  served.  This 
was  succeeded  by  dancing,  singing,  and  card-playing.  The  guests, 
for  the  most  part,  retired  at  ten  o'clock ;  but  the  dancers  would  keep 
it  up  until  after  midnight,  when  each  gentleman  escorted  his  partner 
home.  This  agreeable  duty  was  sometimes  varied,  in  the  case  of 
strangers,  by  the  young  lady  running  away  and  leaving  her  admirer 
to  grope  his  way  home ;  and  the  diarist  tells  of  one  unlucky  cava 
lier  who  concluded  his  evening's  entertainment  by  wandering  into  a 
swamp.1  The  gayety  of  Annapolis,  although  imitated  from  the  great 
English  capital,  had  a  primitive  and  colonial  tinge,  but  was  none  the 
less  enjoyable,  probably,  to  the  pleasure-loving  planters  of  Maryland. 

More  intellectual  amusements  than  those  just  described  were  totally 
wanting,  and  the  planters  had  but  little  taste  for  them  even  had  they 
existed.  Education  had  never  been  an  object  of  interest  or  solicitude. 
There  was  no  college,  and  King  William's  academy  and  library,  found 
ed  at  Annapolis  toward  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century,  was  the 
only  substitute,  and  probably  not  much  better  than  an  ordinary  high- 
school.2  In  the  year  1728,  free  schools  were  established  by  law  in 
every  county ;  but  they  were  in  the  interest  and  under  the  evil  influ 
ence  of  the  Church,  and  neither  grew  nor  prospered.3  Education 
among  the  mass  of  the  people  was  almost  entirely  neglected,  and  two- 
thirds  of  what  little  there  was,  was  obtained  from  convicts  and  indent 
ed  servants,  who  were  regularly  advertised  for  sale  as  teachers.4  The 
wealthy  sent  their  children  abroad,  and  some  of  the  Baltimore  mer 
chants  sent  their  sons  to  Pennsylvania  for  an  education  ;  but  the  effect 
upon  them  when  they  returned  to  take  up  their  life  in  an  uneducated 

1  Pennsylvania  Hist.  Mag.,  i.,  Journal  of  William  Black. 

2  Ridgely,  Annals  of  Annapolis  ;  Burnaby,  p.  70 ;  M'Sherry,  p.  101. 

3  Burnaby,  p.  70  ;  M'Sherry,  p.  117;  Neill,  p.  188. 

4  Neill,  p.  212 ;  Letter  of  Boucher,  and  advertisements  iii  newspapers ;  Burnaby, 
ibid. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  131 

society,  and  among  inferiors  and  slaves,  was  often  to  make  them  only 
more  haughty  and  intemperate.1  Literary  pursuits  were  scarcely 
known.2  A  press  for  public  printing  was  established  in  1689;  an 
other  for  general  work  in  1726;  and  the  Maryland  Gazette  was  first 
issued  in  1745.8  The  only  literature,  if  it  may  be  so  termed,  con 
sisted  of  the  Sot- Weed  Factor,  a  rough,  strong  satire,  by  "  Eben  Cooke, 
gentleman,"  an  unknown  author;  poetical  effusions  and  Addisonian 
essays  in  the  newspaper,  and  occasional  political  tracts  and  sermons.4 
Private  libraries  were  rare ;  and  although  a  post  to  Philadelphia  was 
started  in  1695,  communication  was  slow,  tidings  of  fashions  in  dress 
and  amusement  were  more  eagerly  sought  for  than  books,  and  even 
the  newspapers  were  but  little  read.5 

In  spite  of  the  life  of  indolence,  pleasure,  coarse  amusements,  and 
much  illiteracy,  the  people  were  sensible  and  intelligent,  with  the  typ 
ical  keenness  of  their  race  in  all  relating  to  public  affairs.  In  the 
eighteenth  century  a  large  majority  of  the  people  were  natives,  and 
neither  knew  nor  cared  much  about  royalty.  In  the  year  1722,  the 
Assembly  declared  that  whoever  said  they  had  lost  any  of  their  Eng 
lish  liberties  was  an  ill-wisher  to  the  country.6  The  independent  spirit 
characteristic  of  a  new  and  distant  country,  and  of  an  often  rough 
and  adventurous  life,  was,  in  this  instance,  powerfully  aided  by  the 
hostility  engendered  by  the  Church  and  clergy.  The  great  planters 
cannot,  as  a  class,  bear  comparison  with  their  Virginian  brethren,  either 
in  the  power  they  possessed  or  the  talent  they  produced;  but  the 
whole  body  of  the  upper  and  middle  classes  was  sound  and  vigorous, 
and  when  the  stress  of  Revolution  came,  able  leaders  of  the  stamp  of 
Charles  Carroll  and  Samuel  Chase  were  not  lacking;. 


1  Griffiths,  Annals  of  Baltimore ;  Neill,  ibid.  a  Neill,  p.  214. 

3  M'Mahon,  Hist.  View;  M'Sherry,p.  111. 

4  Neill,  p.  214;  Tyler's  Hist,  of  Amer.  Literature. 

*  M'Sherry,  p.  101 ;  Rochefoucauld,  ii.,  360.  fl  Neill,  p.  215. 


132  HISTORY  OF  THE 


CHAPTER  V. 

NORTH  CAROLINA  FROM  1663  TO  1765. 

NORTH  CAROLINA  occupies  in  the  southern  group  of  colonies  much 
the  same  position  that  Rhode  Island  filled  in  the  history  of  New  Eng 
land.  The  former  was  an  offshoot,  in  large  measure,  of  the  great  col 
ony  of  Virginia ;  the  latter  of  the  vigorous  commonwealth  of  Massa 
chusetts.  Both  became  places  of  refuge  for  the  lawless,  the  adventu 
rous,  and  the  often  thriftless  population,  which  was  discontented  and 
restless  beneath  the  strong  and  well-ordered  governments  of  their  pow 
erful  neighbors.  The  early  history  of  Rhode  Island  is  full  of  faction 
and  turbulence ;  while  her  southern  prototype  exhibited  these  qualities 
constantly  until  the  Revolution,  and  even  after  the  adoption  of  the 
Constitution  occasionally  broke  out  into  disorder  and  license.  There 
is,  moreover,  a  marked  absence  of  individuality  in  the  history  of  North 
Carolina ;  and  she  was  sadly  deficient  in  men  of  great  abilities  and 
commanding  character,  such  as  made  Virginia  illustrious.  Yet  it  was 
owing  only  to  the  natural  conformation  of  her  coast  that  the  founda 
tions  of  a  great  State  were  not  laid  upon  the  banks  of  the  Roanoke 
instead  of  by  the  waters  of  the  James.^  To  North  Carolina  came  the 
first  important  English  expedition  sent  forth  by  Raleigh,  and 
led  by  Amidas  and  Barlow.  On  her  shores  Raleigh's  succes 
sive  colonies  settled,  and  here  their  author  lavished  his  money  and 
crippled  his  fortune.  All  these  first  English  settlements  in  America, 
of  which  North  Carolina  was  the  scene,  perished,  and  history  has  only 
to  record  their  failure.  Many  years  elapsed  before  the  territory  of 
North  Carolina  was  again  even  thought  of  for  purposes  of  coloniza 
tion.  As  early  as  1609  Virginian  planters  were  on  the  Nansemond 
river,  and  here  and  there  must  have  pushed  their  way  into  Carolina. 
In  1622  John  Pory,  an  adventurer  and  traveller  of  the  early  Virginian 
type,  and  secretary  of  the  colony,  made  his  way  as  far  south  as  the 
Chowan,  and  was  favorably  impressed  with  the  country.  But  North 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  133 

Carolina  did  not  become  the  subject  of  royal  gift  until  1629,  when 
Charles  I.  granted  it  to  his  attorney-general,  Sir  Robert  Heath,  "  as 
the  province  of  Carolana,"  and  upon  condition  that  he  should  colo 
nize  it  within  a  reasonable  time.  The  condition  was  not  fulfilled  by 
Heath,  nor  by  Lord  Maltravers,  to  whom  Heath  afterward  transferred 
his  patent.  An  abortive  attempt  at  colonization  was  made  in  1639, 
and  a  titular  governor  appeared  in  Virginia ;  but  this,  and  a  number 
of  conflicting  claims  originating  in  this  patent,  and  sufficiently  trouble 
some  to  the  proprietaries  of  a  later  time,  were  the  only  results  of  the 
grant  of  Charles  I.  This  action  on  the  part  of  the  Crown,  and  the 
official  information  received,  did  not,  however,  suffice  to  prevent  the 
Virginia  Assembly  lending  itself  to  a  scheme  by  which  possession 
might  be  obtained  of  the  neighboring  territory,  or  at  least  substantial 
benefits  realized  therefrom  by  their  constituents.  With  this 
object,  they  made  grants  to  a  trading  company,  which  led, 
however,  only  to  exploration  and  traffic.  Other  grants  of  a  similar 
nature  followed  for  the  next  ten  years,  at  the  expiration  of 
which  a  company  of  Virginians  made  their  way  from  Nanse- 
mond  to  Albemarle,  and  established  a  settlement  there.  The  Vir 
ginian  Burgesses  granted  them  lands,  and  promised  further  grants 
to  all  who  would  extend  these  settlements  to  the  southward.  Em 
igration  from  Virginia  began.  Settlers,  singly  and  in  companies, 
crossed  the  border,  and  made  scattered  and  solitary  clearings  within 
the  wilds  of  North  Carolina.  Many  of  these  people  were  mere  advent 
urers  ;  but  some  of  them  were  of  more  substantial  stuff,  and  founded 
permanent  settlements  on  the  Chowan  and  elsewhere.  Other  eyes, 
however,  as  watchful  as  those  of  the  Virginians,  were  also  turned  to 
the  rich  regions  of  the  South.  New  England  enterprise  explored  the 
American  coast  from  one  end  to  the  other,  in  search  of  lucrative  trade 
and  new  resting-places,  and  after  a  long  acquaintance  with  the 
I66l~  North  Carolina  coast,  they  bought  land  of  the  Indians,  near  the 
mouth  of  Cape  Fear  river,  and  settled  there.  For  some  unex 
plained  cause — possibly  on  account  of  the  wild  and  dangerous  charac 
ter  of  the  scattered  inhabitants,  who  had  already  drifted  thither  from 
Virginia,  possibly  from  the  reason  >vhich  they  themselves  gave — the 
New  England  colonists  abandoned  their  settlement  and  departed,  leav 
ing  a  written  opinion  of  the  poor  character  of  the  country  expressed  in 
very  plain  language  and  pinned  to  a  post.  Here  it  was  found  by  some 
wanderers  from  Barbadoes,  who  were  of  a  different  opinion  from  the 
New  Englanders  as  to  the  appearance  of  things ;  and  they  according- 


134  HISTORY  OF  THE 

ly  repurchased  the  land  from  the  Indians  and  began  a  settlement.  At 
this  date,  therefore,  there  was  in  North  Carolina  this  infant 
settlement  of  the  Barbadoes  men,  on  the  extreme  south-east 
ern  point  of  the  present  State,  and  in  the  north-eastern  corner  the 
Virginia  settlers  scattered  about,  with  here  a  solitary  plantation,  and 
there  a  little  group  of  farms,  but  always  a  restless  van  of  adventurers 
working  their  way  down  the  coast  and  into  the  interior.  The  older 
colonies  had  not  as  yet  done  much  for  North  Carolina ;  but  a  begin 
ning  had  at  least  been  made,  and  this  handful  of  dispersed,  unsocial, 
lawless,  and  ungoverned  men  would  in  time  have  laid  the  foundations 
of  one  more  English  commonwealth.  But  this  slow  progress  was  now 
to  receive  a  sudden  impulse.  Whatever  rights  the  North  Carolina 
settlers  may  have  had  in  the  eyes  of  the  Virginians,  who  had  granted 
them  land,  or  in  those  of  the  Indians  who  had  sold  it,  they  had  none 
recognized  by  the  English  King,  who  claimed  to  own  all  that  vast  re 
gion.  It  may  be  doubted  whether  anything  was  known  of  these  early 
colonists  in  England ;  and  their  existence  was  certainly  not  regarded  in 
the  least  when  Charles  II.  lavished  their  territory,  and  much  besides,  upon 
a  band  of  his  courtiers  and  ministers.  There  were  many  men  then  in 
England  who  had  deserved  well  of  Charles  Stuart,  and  when  he  was 
on  the  throne  meant  to  have  their  reward.  Many  men  were  looking 
carefully  about  to  see  what  they  could  get  from  the  Crown,  now  that 
the  King  had  his  own  again.  Among  the  royal  possessions  were  vast 
tracts  of  wild  lands  in  America,  where  innumerable  States  could  be 
parcelled  out,  and  whose  natural  resources  had  all  the  charm  of  the 
unknown.  Charles's  followers  desired  money  above  all  things,  and 
here  was  a  field  not  only  for  a  speculation  of  immense  possibilities, 
but  a  certainty  of  glory  incident  to  the  proprietors  of  provinces,  even 
if  those  provinces  were  uninhabited  forests.  That  the  gift  was  held 
in  high  esteem,  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  it  fell  to  the  share  of  those 
who  were  highest  in  place  and  power  under  the  government  of  the 
Restoration.  Great  names  stand  in  the  list  of  those  to  whom  was 
granted  a  territory  covering  more  than  eight  degrees  south  of  the 
thirty-sixth  parallel,  and  stretching  in  the  other  direction  from  the 
Atlantic  to  the  South  Sea,  in  accordance  with  the  charter  issued  in 
March,  1663.  Edward,  Earl  of  Clarendon,  and  George,  Duke  of  Albe- 
marle,  were  the  first  two  of  the  grantees,  among  whom  may  be  found 
the  well-known  Royalist  names  of  Berkeley  and  Carteret ;  while  near 
the  end  occurs  the  name  of  him  who  was  the  moving  and  guiding 
spirit  of  the  whole  enterprise,  Lord  Ashley,  better  known  a  few  years 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  135 

before  as  Sir  Anthony  Cooper,  and  who  has  come  down  to  posterity 
by  his  later  title  of  the  Earl  of  Shaftesbury.  The  charter  had  scarce 
ly  been  issued  when  the  Duke  of  Norfolk  and  Sir  Robert  Greenfield's 
heirs  started  up  as  claimants  under  the  old  Heath  grant.  Their  claim 
was  soon  disposed  of  by  a  declaration  from  the  King  in  Council  that 
the  Heath  charter  was  null  and  void.  Before  this  claim  was  quieted 
another  was  raised  by  the  New  Englanders,  through  their  friends  in 
England,  for  the  lands  purchased  from  the  Indians  at  Cape  Fear,  and 
this  the  proprietors  found  it  for  their  interest  to  deal  with  gently. 
In  May  the  proprietaries  organized,  formed  a  joint-stock  company, 
decided  on  the  general  principles  of  the  government  to  be  founded, 
divided  their  territory  into  two  counties,  Albemarle  and  Clarendon, 
and  prepared  for  colonization.  They  first  turned  their  attention  to 
the  beginnings  already  made  in  the  new  province.  The  Virginian 
settlements  about  the  Chowan  had  reached  a  considerable  impor 
tance,  having  grown  largely  by  additions  from  the  non-conformists  of 
Virginia  and  the  badly  treated  sectaries  of  Massachusetts.  Governor 
Berkeley,  of  Virginia,  himself  a  proprietary,  was  instructed  in  Septem 
ber  to  settle  the  government  of  the  North  Carolina  colony.  This  he 
did  by  severing  their  connection  with  Virginia,  appointing  William 
Drummond,  afterward  a  leader  in  Bacon's  rebellion,  Governor,  insti 
tuting  an  Assembly,  simple  forms  of  law,  and  an  easy  tenure  of  land, 
and  then  leaving  the  people  to  shift  for  themselves.  The  New  England 
ers  were  treated  in  a  similar  spirit,  and  were  offered  by  the  proprieta 
ries  every  inducement  to  return  to  or  remain  under  their  government. 
To  Sir  John  Yeamans,  who  led  a  company  from  the  Barba- 
does,  they  said,  "  Make  things  easy  for  the  people  of  New  Eng 
land;  from  thence  the  greatest  supplies  are  expected."  This  emigra 
tion  from  Barbadoes  was  the  third  and  most  successful  of  the  purely 
colonial  attempts.  The  emigrants  settled  near  the  mouth  of  the  Cape 
Fear  river  were  joined  by  such  New  Englanders  as  may  have  remain 
ed  there,  established  a  considerable  lumber  trade,  and  throve  apace. 

But  while  the  proprietaries  were  encouraging  other  provincials  to 
settle  their  new  territory  and  become  their  subjects,  without  expense 
to  the  rulers,  they  were  also  engaged  in  examining  the  geography  of 
the  region  where  their  possessions  lay.  Their  cupidity  was  excited. 
They  determined  to  enlarge  their  bounds,  and  obtained  a  new  charter, 
which  granted  to  them  the  southern  half  of  what  is  now  the  United 
States  as  far  west  as  the  Pacific.  That  this  charter  utterly  disregard 
ed  the  rights  of  Virginia  on  the  north,  and  of  Spain  on  the  south,  was 


136  HISTORY  OF  THE 

a  matter  of  small  moment.  Charles  gave  liberally  when  it  cost  him 
nothing ;  and  the  terms  of  the  charter,  wholly  in  favor  of  the  proprie 
taries,  reserved  but  little  in  the  interests  of  either  Crown  or  colonists. 
Fresh  efforts  signalized  these  new  acquisitions.  Agents  were  sent  into 
all  parts  of  the  British  dominions  to  solicit  emigration.  Yeamans  was 
made  Governor  of  the  southern  county.  People  from  the  Bermudas 
settled  on  the  Pasquotank,  and  New  Englanders  came  to  swell  the 
number  of  settlers  on  the  Chowan.  William  Sayle  explored 
the  coast,  and  his  description  of  the  Bahamas  led  the  proprie 
taries  to  ask  and  obtain  those  islands  in  addition  to  their  already  vast 
territory.  In  the  same  year  Samuel  Stephens  was  appointed  to  suc 
ceed  Drummond  as  Governor  of  Albemarle.  He  was  assisted  by  a 
council  of  twelve,  one-half  of  whom  he  appointed,  while  the  remainder 
were  chosen  by  the  Assembly,  consisting  of  twelve  delegates  elected 
by  the  people.  This  first  legislature  soon  met.  They  enact 
ed  laws,  chiefly  with  a  view  to  populate  the  country,  and  their 
principal  and  most  characteristic  measure  was  to  make  North  Caro 
lina  a  safe  refuge  for  insolvent  debtors.  The  proprietaries  assented 
to  these  laws,  and  also  ordered  that  lands  should  be  held  in  Albe 
marle  on  the  same  tenure  as  in  Virginia.  Under  these  simple  forms 
of  government  the  colony  progressed  peaceably  and  rapidly  ;  but  such 
a  system  was  not  at  all  in  keeping  with  the  imperial  ideas  of  the  pro 
prietaries. 

In  the  seven  years  which  had  elapsed  since  the  first  grant,  the  pro 
prietaries  had  done  little  toward  colonization ;  but  they  now  began  to 
take  more  active  measures  for  the  settlement  of  their  territory.  Be 
sides  sending  out  an  expedition,  which  landed  in  South  Carolina,  they 
established  an  elaborate  system  of  government,  known  as  the  "  funda 
mental  constitutions."  The  leader  among  the  proprietaries  through 
out  was  Shaftesbury,  and  the  new  activity  now  displayed  by  them 
was  due  to  his  restless  energy.  At  this  time,  too,  Shaftesbury  drew 
to  his  service  John  Locke,  who  engaged  in  the  task  of  colonizing  the 
Carolinas,  and  who  labored  assiduously  for  some  years  as  unofficial 
secretary  to  the  proprietaries  for  the  advancement  of  their  projects. 
The  first  practical  politician  and  the  first  philosopher  of  England 
united  their  abilities  to  give  a  system  of  government  to  Carolina,  and 
the  result  was  a  simple  absurdity.  The  "  fundamental  constitutions," 
amended  somewhat  by  the  proprietaries,  and  revised  and  corrected 
by  Shaftesbury,  were  drafted  by  John  Locke.  For  those  who  are 
interested  in  the  character,  career,  and  mental  development  of  Locke 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  137 

or  Sliaftesbury  these  constitutions  possess  an  interest.  To  the  stu 
dent  of  American  history  they  are  valueless,  except  as  one  explana* 
tion  of  the  turbulence  and  faction  which  prevailed  in  the  Carolinas. 
The  system  was  a  clumsy  and  complicated  form  of  aristocratic  gov 
ernment,  tricked  out  in  the  rags  of  feudalism.  There  were  to  be  seign 
iories,  baronies,  and  manors,  and  there  were  to  be  four  estates  of  the 
realm — proprietaries,  landgraves,  caciques,  and  commons.  The  chief 
power  in  the  state  was  vested  in  a  nobility  which  had  no  existence, 
and  in  a  landed  aristocracy  which  the  future  was  to  create.  What 
remained  was  given  to  the  people — a  handful  of  rude  settlers — who 
could  not  comprehend  the  system  imposed  upon  them,  and  only  felt 
instinctively  that  it  was  unsuitable,  and  probably  oppressive.  There 
were  elaborate  arrangements  for  the  government  of  every  division 
and  subdivision  of  the  provinces,  and  a  scheme  for  a  judiciary.  The 
only  provision  showing  foresight  and  judgment  was  that  which  guar 
anteed  religious  freedom.  This  was  due  to  the  wisdom  of  Locke ;  but 
it  was  marred  by  the  clause  which  engrafted  upon  religious  toleration 
the  establishment  of  the  English  Church  as  that  of  the  State. 

Delighted  with  their  work,  and  having  decreed  that  the  constitu 
tions  should  stand  forever,  the  proprietaries  organized  under  the  new 
system,  and  sent  directions  to  Governor  Stephens  to  put  it  in  force 
among  the  settlers  on  the  Oho  wan.  Naturally  enough  Stephens  failed 
to  carry  out  the  commands  of  his  masters,  despite  the  most  earnest 
efforts.  The  only  result  of  the  attempt  was  to  shake  severely  the 
existing  government  then  naturally  developing  in  Carolina  in  accord 
ance  with  the  wishes  of  the  people  and  with  their  conditions  of  life. 
The  lawless  spirit  of  the  settlers  was  still  further  strengthened  by 
the  ill-judged  efforts  of  the  proprietaries  to  regulate  and  limit  trade. 
Religion  gained  a  foothold,  it  is  true,  soon  after,  but  it  came  through 
Quaker  missionaries,  and  not  at  all  in  conformity  to  the  well-bred 
schemes  of  the  proprietaries.  The  first  results  of  the  famous  con 
stitutions  in  North  Carolina  were  the  lasting  injury  of  the  existing 
government,  the  increase  of  turbulence  and  faction,  and  the  establish 
ment  of  a  despised  and  persecuted  faith.  The  great  and  varied  abili 
ties  of  Locke  and  Shaftesbury  bore  strange  fruit  in  America. 

When  Stephens  died,  the  Assembly  chose  Carteret,  their  speaker, 

to  succeed  him.     The  new  Governor  had  as  little  success  as 

the  old  in  introducing  the  constitutions,  and  utterly  failed  to 

preserve  order.     He  soon  departed  to  lay  before  the  proprietaries  the 

state  of  the  country,  and  the  Assembly  sent  their  new  speaker,  East- 


138  HISTORY  OF  THE 

church,  after  him  to  present  their  side  of  the  story.  The  proprie 
taries  sensibly  enough  appointed  Eastchurch  Governor,  with  a 
new  set  of  instructions;  but  they  sent  with  him  one  Miller, 
who  had  recently  been  expelled  from  the  province  by  the  popular 
party.  While  Eastchurch  lingered  in  the  West  Indies  to  woo 
and  win  a  bride,  Miller  proceeded  on  his  way,  and  took  pos 
session  of  the  government  in  the  triple  capacity  of  president,  secreta 
ry,  and  collector  of  the  customs.  He  found  himself  surrounded  by 
difficulties.  The  generous  laws  of  the  province  had  drawn  thither 
large  numbers  of  debtors  and  other  lawless  and  adventurous  charac 
ters.  North  Carolina  had  already  become  a  thorn  in  the  side  of 
Virginia,  who  complained  bitterly  of  her  sister  colony  as  a  refuge  for 
bankrupts  and  criminals  of  every  sort.  There  was,  too,  a  strong  ele 
ment  of  adventurous  and  trading  New  Englanders,  who  had  little  af 
fection  for  the  Royalist  proprietaries,  and  carried  on  a  large  illicit 
traffic  with  great  profit  both  to  themselves  and  the  tobacco  planters. 
With  such  a  people  Miller  rashly  endeavored  not  only  to  set  up  a 
strong  government  and  enforce  its  laws,  but  to  carry  out  the  Naviga 
tion  Act  and  collect  revenue,  which  went  largely  into  his  own  pocket. 
The  Carolinians  stood  it  longer  than  might  have  been  expected.  At 
last,  however,  they  accused  Miller  of  interfering  with  the  freedom  of 
elections,  with  levying  taxes  for  his  own  behoof,  and,  worst  of  all,  with 
interfering  with  their  trade.  This  last  grievance  was  decisive.  An 
insurrection,  headed  by  John  Culpepper,  an  adventurer  from  the 
southern  province,  broke  out,  and  the  insurgents,  getting  possession 
of  a  large  sum  of  money  in  the  public  treasury,  made  themselves  mas 
ters  of  the  government,  which  they  arranged  to  suit  them 
selves.  Miller  escaped ;  Eastchurch  was  refused  admittance ; 
and  soon  after  Culpepper  was  sent  to  England  to  negotiate.  Cul 
pepper  found  Miller  already  in  the  field,  and,  though  the  pro 
prietaries  treated  him  sufficiently  well,  he  was  arrested  just  as 
he  was  about  to  set  sail,  and  tried  soon  after  for  high-treason,  because 
he  had  illegally  acted  as  collector  and  embezzled  the  King's  money. 
Shaftesbury,  who  probably  felt  a  sympathy  for  a  successful  rebel,  in 
terfered  decisively,  however,  at  this  point,  and  Culpepper  was  acquit 
ted.  In  the  mean  time  the  proprietaries  had  selected  one  of  their 
own  number,  Seth  Sothel,  to  go  out  as  Governor  and  settle  the  affairs 
of  the  troubled  province.  Sothel  was  captured  on  his  voyage  by 
pirates,  and  the  government  went  on  for  some  years  under  tempo 
rary  rulers,  who  were  too  feeble  to  establish  order,  and  sufficiently 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  139 

strong  to  quarrel  with  their  subjects.     At  last,  however,  Sothel  ar 
rived.     He  found  the  colony,  of  course,  in  its  normal  condi- 

JL  oS  3* 

tion  of  anarchy,  but  he  was  the  last  man  to  quell  it,  for  he  was 

a  choice  specimen  of  the  greedy,  petty,  and  tyrannical  officials  who 

flourished  in  all  parts  of  America  under  the  benign  auspices  of  Charles 

and  James.     He  robbed  the  people  and  the  proprietaries  alike  with 

perfect  indifference,  and   devoted  himself  wholly  to    extortion   and 

theft  for  his  own  benefit.    For  some  unexplained  reason  the  colonists 

bore  with  him  for  five  years  before  they  rose  in  arms  and 

drove  him  from  power.     Condemned  by  the  Assembly,  Sothel 

was  stripped  of  the  government  and  exiled  from  the  province. 

Philip  Ludwell,  of  Virginia,  was    appointed  his    successor.     He 
gave  out  that  he  was  prepared  to  redress  all  grievances,  and 
remedy,  so  far  as  possible,  the  misery  inflicted  by  his  prede 
cessor  ;  but  he  resided  chiefly  in  Virginia,  and  although  the  people 
were  not  oppressed  as  before,  disorder  and  license  continued  to  pre 
vail,  and  the  colony  did  not  prosper.     The  population  diminished  to 
such  an  extent  that  in  1694  it  was  not  more  than  half  as  large  as 
at  the  time  of  Miller's  arrival  and  Culpepper's  insurrection. 
Ludwell,  after  four  years  of  ineffective  service,  was  succeed 
ed  by  Lillington,  and  then  by  Thomas  Harvey  as  Deputy-governor. 
At  this  time,  under  pressure  of  the  revolt  in  South  Carolina,  and  of 
the  continuing  turbulence  in  both  the  northern  and  southern  prov 
inces,  the  proprietaries  abandoned  the  constitutions  framed  for  eter 
nal  duration,  and  determined  to  allow  the  colonists  to  govern  them 
selves  according  to  the  terms  of  the  charter  of  Charles  II.     Thus,  at 
the  expiration  of  twenty-three  years,  the  work  of  Locke  and  Shaftes- 
bury  wholly  perished.     Almost  ludicrous  in  conception,  the  defunct 
system  had  borne  bitter  fruit  in  broils  and  factions,  which  went  on 
unchecked  by  inefficient  rulers  until  the  proprietaries,  resolving  that 
the  best  talent  was  needed  in  their  possessions,  sent  out  John  Arch- 
dale — a  Quaker,  and  one  of  their  own  number — to  administer 
the  government  of  both  colonies.    Archdale  was  firm,  judicious, 
and  wise — the  first  Governor  of  ability  the  province  had  been  blessed 
with.    The  southern  colony  chiefly  occupied  his  attention,  but  he  met 
with  quicker  success  in  North  Carolina,  where  the  population  was 
scattered,  and  where  many  of  the  leading  men  were  of  his  own  re 
ligious  faith.     Under  Archdale's  guidance  the  questions  most  produc 
tive  of  ill-feeling,  and  the  long-standing  quarrels,  were  settled  in  the 
Assembly  by  suitable  legislation.     Order  was  restored,  contentment 


140  HISTORY  OF  THE 

diffused,  population   again  began   to   increase,  and  the  government 
1696.   went  on  Peaceably,  after  Archdale's  departure,  under  Harvey, 
who  had,  a  year  previously,  proved   so  incompetent.     Upon 
1699.    Harvey's  death,  Henderson  Walker,  the  President  of  the  Coun 
cil,  succeeded  to  the  government.     During  the  five  years  of  Walker's 
administration   order  and  tranquillity  prevailed  in   North  Carolina, 
broken  only  by  the  depredations  of  the  pirates.     The  impulse  given 
by  Archdale  to  the  affairs  of  the  colony,  and  the  discreet  poli 
cy  of  his  successors,  came,  however,  to  an  end  upon  the  death 
of  Walker. 

Governor  Johnson,  of  South  Carolina,  now  in  control  of  both  the 
provinces,  sent  Robert  Daniel  to  be  President  of  the  Council,  rule 
in  the  northern  province,  and  establish  there,  as  he  had  done  in  the 
south,  the  Church  of  England.  Daniel  carried  out  his  instructions 
faithfully.  The  Church  was  established,  and  taxes  laid  for  its  sup 
port.  The  immediate  result  was  a  union  of  all  the  dissenters  with 
those  of  South  Carolina  in  opposition  to  the  lord  proprietaries,  while 
the  old  spirit  of  faction  and  discord  was  again  let  loose.  The  wild, 
adventurous,  and  ill -educated  settlers  of  North  Carolina  needed  a 
strong,  firm  government,  whose  policy  was  to  interfere  as  little  as  possi 
ble.  Instead  of  that,  they  were  burdened  anew  with  one  which  was  not 
only  weak,  but  meddling  and  aggravating.  Thomas  Gary  suc 
ceeded  Daniel,  being  appointed  Deputy-governor,  but  the  pro 
prietaries  disapproved  the  choice,  and  the  Council  elected  Glover.  The 
whole  province  was  immediately  plunged  into  a  state  of  anarchy,  pro 
duced  by  the  struggles  of  the  contending  factions.  Many  fled  to  Vir 
ginia,  and  at  last  the  proprietaries  removed  Cary,  and  sent 
out  Edward  Hyde  to  be  Lieutenant-governor.  He  was  well 
received  by  both  parties,  and  everything  proceeded  quietly  until  the 
elections  were  held,  when  Cary,  being  defeated,  put  himself  at  the 
head  of  an  open  insurrection.  His  complete  selfishness  of  purpose, 
and  the  limited  amount  of  plunder  he  was  able  to  offer,  prevented  his 
finding  much  popular  support.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  nobody  came 
to  the  assistance  of  Governor  Hyde — the  people  apparently  regard 
ing  the  conflict  with  that  perfect  indifference  which  is  the  offspring 
of  a  normal  condition  of  political  disorder  and  license.  Governor 
Hyde,  however,  managed  to  hold  Cary  at  bay  until  Governor  Spots- 
wood,  of  Virginia,  interfered  with  decisive  effect,  dispersing  the  rebels 
with  his  troops,  seizing  Cary,  who  fled  to  Virginia,  and  finally  send 
ing  him  a  prisoner  in  a  man-of-war  to  England. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  141 

Hardly  had  civil  commotion  begun  to  subside,  when  the  unlucky 
colony  was  visited  by  the  scourge  of  Indian  war.     There  had  been 
from  time  to  time  Indian  outbreaks,  and  the  North  Carolina  settlers 
were  not  of  a  disposition  to  conciliate  the  savages ;  but  at  last  the 
troubles  culminated  in  a  union  of  the  tribes  and  a  general 
massacre  of  the  borderers,  from  which  the  Palatines  and  Swiss 
alone  partially  escaped  by  a  treaty  of  neutrality.     Assistance  was  re 
ceived  from  South  Carolina,  the  North  Carolina  militia  refusing  very 
generally  to  obey  the  requisition  of  the  Governor.     The  South  Car 
olinians  inflicted  one  defeat  upon  the  Indians,  and  then  withdrew. 
Soon  after  Hyde  died,  and  was  succeeded  by  Thomas  Pollock, 
who  was  made  President  of  the  Council.     President  Pollock 
draws  a  black  picture  of  the  condition  of  affairs  when  he  assumed  the 
1714    g°vernment>  an(^  ft  was  but  little  better  when  the  new  Gov 
ernor,  Charles  Eden,  arrived.     The  Indian  war  still  raged,  and 
fresh  assistance  had  to  be  asked  from  both  South  Carolina  and  Vir 
ginia.     Aid  was  readily  given  by  both,  the  power  of  the  Tuscaroras 
was  broken,  and  in  1715  peace   was   finally  made   with  the   other 
tribes ;  but  intestine  struggles,  Indian  wars,  incompetent  or  corrupt 
officials,  and  depreciated  currency  had  reduced  North  Carolina  to  a  low 
point.     Nothing  gives  a  more  striking  impression  of  the  difficulties 
which  had  beset  the  colony  than  a  comparison  of  the  numbers  of  the 
people  in  1676  and  171 7.     In  the  former  year  there  were  fourteen 
hundred  tithable ;  and  after  forty  years  of  immigration,  settlement, 
and  growth,  there  were  only  six  hundred  more. 

Better  prospects  seemed  to  open  with  the  new  administration. 
The  laws  were  revised  and  ordered  to  be  printed ;  more  bills  of 
credit  were  issued;  the  establishment  of  the  Church  of  England 
was  confirmed;  but  toleration  was  secured,  and  a  variety  of  use 
ful  measures  of  police  were  enacted.  Much  of  this  legislation  was 
bad,  no  doubt ;  but  it  at  least  showed  a  settled  policy  on  the  part  of 
the  government.  Still,  the  old  factions  were  far  from  extinct.  The 
former  partisans  of  Gary  controlled  the  lower  house,  and  opposed 
every  species  of  resistance  to  the  Governor.  In  this,  unfortunately, 
they  were  much  aided  by  Eden's  complicity  with  Teach,  the  most 
noted  of  the  pirates  who  then  infested  the  coast.  The  secretary  of 
the  provinces,  one  Knight,  was  undoubtedly  an  ally  of  the  buccaneers, 
and  the  Governor  was  somewhat  involved.  At  last  Virginia 
interfered  once  more  in  the  affairs  of  her  troublesome  neigh 
bor  with  decisive  effect.  The  pirate  vessel  was  captured,  Teach 


142  HISTORY  OF  THE 

was  killed  in  the  fight,  and  four  of  his  comrades  were  hung.     Piracy 
was  at  last  sharply  checked  in  North  Carolina,  but  the  corrupt  prac 
tices  of  the  administration  did  not  tend  to  keep  political  factions  in 
order.     The  leaders  of  the  opposition  headed  a  riot,  broke  into  the 
secretary's  office,  and  seized  all  the  records  of  the  State.     The  admin 
istration  proved  strong  enough  to  put  down  the  incipient  rebellion, 
and  throw  the  ringleaders  into  prison ;  but  such  affairs  as  these  and 
that  of  the  pirates  indicate  a  low  and  rude  state  of  society.    The  only 
good  sign  was  that  the  government  had  gained  sufficient  strength  to 
maintain  itself.     After  this  the  colony  rested,  and  Eden  ruled 
in  peace  until  his  death.    Two  Presidents  then  governed  in  suc 
cession  until  the  arrival  of  the  new  Governor,  George  Burrington,  who 
appears  to  have  been  a  mere  adventurer  and  common  brawler. 
He  held  office  for  little  more  than  a  year,  when  he  was  re 
moved,  and  his  place  filled  by  Sir  Richard  Everard.     The  event  of 
the  new  administration  was  the  settlement  of  the  long-pend 
ing  boundary  dispute  with  Virginia.     Everard  himself  was  an 
improvement  on  Burrington ;  but  he  was  far  from  being  a  good  Gov 
ernor.     He  paid  little  attention  to  the  Assembly,  did  not  try  to  rem 
edy  gross  grievances,  quarrelled  with  the  Council,  and  effected  but 
slight  improvement  in  the  affairs  of  the  colony. 

At  last,  despairing  of  success,  and  justly  censured  for  their  bad  offi 
cers,  the  proprietaries  abandoned  their  attempt  to  rule  a  province. 
Their  authority  had  been  for  some  time  practically  at  an  end  in 
South  Carolina,  and  they  now — with  the  exception  of  Lord  Carteret — 
sold  all  their  rights  to  the  Crown.  To  abolish  the  clumsy  form  of 
proprietary  government,  with  all  its  attendant  evils,  was  a  step  in  the 
right  direction ;  but  the  first  move  on  the  part  of  the  Crown  was  a 
sadly  mistaken  one.  Burrington,  appointed  previously  by  royal  favor, 
was  reinstated,  and  returned  to  the  province  for  a  much  lon 
ger  period  of  ill-doing  than  on  the  prior  occasion.  He  began 
his  administration  by  a  quarrel  with  the  Council,  excited  general  re 
sentment  by  the  appointment  of  assistant  judges,  for  whom  he  claimed 
large  powers,  and  concluded  by  an  open  breach  with  the  Assembly, 
who  wished  to  inquire  into  the  abuses  connected  with  official  fees. 
The  representatives  of  the  people,  however,  began  at  last  to  gather 
strength,  and  learn  the  art  of  parliamentary  government.  They  im 
peached  and  removed  a  judge,  who  was  one  of  the  worst  of  the  offi 
cials  with  whom  the  proprietaries  had  cursed  North  Carolina ;  and 
they  evinced  in  other  ways  an  intelligent  conception  of  the  popular 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  143 

grievances.     Burrington  continued  in  his  old  courses,  scandalous  in 
private  life,  and  unwise  in  public  conduct,  whether  he  aimed  sincere- 
iy  at  reform  or  merely  oppressed  those  who  thwarted  him.     At  last 
complaints  were  sent  to  England,  and  Burrington  soon  follow 
ed  them,  unwilling  to  await  the  result,  although  his  principal 
opponent,  the  chief -justice,  was  little  better  than  himself. 

A  new  Governor,  Gabriel  Johnston,  was  immediately  appointed, 
and  was  an  improvement  upon  his  predecessor,  though  by  no  means 
an  ideal  officer.  But  he  had  definite  views,  real  capacity  for  business, 
and  held  office  long  enough  to  carry  out  a  policy.  To  his  first  Legis 
lature  he  recommended  the  establishment  of  fixed  salaries ;  to  his  sec 
ond,  the  necessity  of  public  education,  of  patronizing  religion,  of  new 
jails  and  sufficient  execution  of  penal  laws,  and  called  attention  to 
the  great  defects  in  the  methods  of  acquiring  land.  Wise  as  these 
suggestions  were,  the  Legislature  stubbornly  resisted  the  Governor,  and 
passed  no  bills.  This  was  not  an  auspicious  beginning;  but,  never 
theless,  in  the  course  of  Governor  Johnston's  long  administration  of 
eighteen  years  many  substantial  advances  were  made.  The  bounda 
ry-line  was  run  between  North  and  South  Carolina,  the  laws  were  re 
vised  and  amended,  and  something  was  done  in  the  matters  of  edu 
cation,  religion,  and  land  titles.  A  vain  attempt  was  made  to  purify 
the  bench  by  driving  Smith,  Burrington's  old  enemy,  from  office, 
but  the  chief-justice  was  protected  by  the  Governor,  and  by  a  pack 
ed  majority  of  the  Assembly.  Johnston  also  tried,  for  his  own  pur 
poses,  to  change  the  system  of  representation,  but  failed.  He  appear 
ed  to  more  advantage  in  his  persistent  though  fruitless  efforts  to 
check  the  issue  of  a  depreciated  currency ;  and  he  effected  a  change 
in  the  site  of  the  capital  after  prolonged  wranglings  with  the  Assem 
bly.  During  Johnston's  term  of  office  the  colony  had  its  share  in 
the  Spanish  war,  sending  its  quota  to  the  West  India  expedition,  and 
giving  aid  to  Oglethorpe  in  his  Florida  campaigns.  Johnston's  rule 
was,  on  the  whole,  prudent,  and  it  was  certainly  beneficial.  Popula 
tion  increased  rapidly,  trade  flourished,  new  lands  were  brought  under 
cultivation,  the  judicial  system  was  extended,  and  was  enabled  to 
reach  the  scattered  and  lawless  inhabitants  of  the  back  counties. 
When  Governor  Johnston  died,  the  Assembly  took  advantage  of 
the  lax  rule  of  native  presidents  to  issue  more  currency,  al 
though  their  resources  were  soon  to  be  strained  to  the  utter 
most  by  the  impending  French  war.  The  successor  of  Johnston, 
Arthur  Dobbs,  an  Irishman,  a  friend  of  Swift,  and  a  man  of  letters, 


144  HISTORY  OF  THE 

although  of  slender  abilities  for  business,  found  himself  on  his  arrival 
confronted  by  the  difficulties  which  beset  every  American  colony  in 
the  great  conflict  which  was  to  have  so  deep  an  effect  upon  the  des 
tinies  of  the  continent.  North  Carolina  was  not  within  immediate  reach 
of  the  French  arms,  but  she  felt  that  the  dangers  of  Virginia  nearly 
concerned  her,  and  she  furnished  men  and  money  for  the  war  in  the 
neighboring  colony  and  in  the  northern  provinces.  She  had  troubles 
of  her  own,  too,  with  the  Indians  of  the  Carolinas,  who  seized  the  op 
portunity  to  break  out  into  open  and  devastating  hostility,  which  was 
only  checked  after  much  hard  fighting. 

These  various  forms  of  war  put  a  severe  strain  upon  the  province, 
and  in  North  Carolina,  as  elsewhere,  led  to  political  struggles  over 
civil  matters  between  the  representatives  of  the  people  and  those  of 
the  Crown,  foreshadowing  the  dissensions  which  opened  the  way  for 
Independence.  Like  his  immediate  predecessor,  Governor  Dobbs  made 
a  vigorous  attempt  to  reduce  the  representation,  and  model  it  in  such 
a  manner  as  to  secure  to  himself  the  control  of  legislation.  After 
proceeding  quite  far  in  the  execution  of  this  project,  he  was  checked 
and  ultimately  defeated  by  the  determined  resistance  of  the  Assem 
bly;  and  he  was  undoubtedly  overawed  by  the  riots  and  violence 
which  broke  out,  as  they  always  did  in  North  Carolina  whenever  the 
spirit  of  opposition  to  the  laws  was  aroused.  The  only  result  of  this 
contest  was  a  clause  requiring  special  and  new  charters  for  the  estab 
lishment  of  counties  and  boroughs — a  device  which  put  many  large 
fees  into  the  pocket  of  the  Governor,  and  which  subsequently  led  to 
much  ill-feeling.  The  next  conflict  was  about  the  old  question  of 
the  currency.  Here  the  Governor  and  Council  appear,  as  usual,  in  the 
best  attitude,  resisting  further  issues  of  depreciated  paper;  but  in  all 
other  respects  the  administration  put  itself  in  the  wrong.  Affairs  in 
the  province  were  in  a  bad  condition.  The  old  judiciary  act  had  been 
repealed,  and  there  had  been  no  courts  for  eight  months.  There  had 
been  much  turbulence,  rioting,  and  bloodshed.  The  sheriffs  failed  to 
collect  the  taxes  properly,  and  the  treasurers  gave  no  satisfactory  ac 
counts.  The  Assembly  endeavored  to  meet  the  difficulties  by  insert 
ing  a  clause  in  the  aid  bill,  compelling  the  treasurers  to  account,  and 
by  establishing  courts,  where  the  judges  were  to  hold  office  dur 
ing  good  behavior ;  but  to  these  measures  the  Governor  would 
not  assent.  Matters  went  from  bad  to  worse.  It  was  the  old  story : 
no  reforms,  no  money.  Then  came  addresses  and  petitions  to  the 
King  against  the  Governor,  and  the  appointment  of  an  agent  in  Eng- 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  145 

land  in  the  interest  of  the  Assembly.     The  next  session  the  Governor 
gave  way,  and  assented  to  the  court  bill  on  condition  of  the  subse 
quent  royal  consent.     Dobbs,  however,  learned  nothing  from  this  ex 
perience.     Fees  were  a  fruitful  source  of  trouble  among  the  lawless 
people  of  the  back  counties,  and  the  extortion  of  Lord  Granville's 
agent  in  regard  to  land  patents  led  to  riotous  outbreaks.     The  Gov 
ernor,  instead  of  trying  to  mitigate  the  evil  of  unjust  fees,  created 
and  exacted  new  and  more  burdensome  ones.     One  dissension  led  to 
another.     The  Governor  and  the  Assembly  quarrelled  about  paper- 
money,  about  the  position  of  the  capital,  about  the  appointment  of 
an  agent,  about  public  accounts,  and  in  all  the  passage  of  the  aid  bill 
was  made  the  means  of  coercing  the  executive.     The  disal 
lowance  of  the  court  laws  did  not  tend  to  mend  matters,  and 
of  course  the  full  weight  of  popular  displeasure  fell  upon  the  Govern 
or,  now  loaded  with  the  blunders  of  the  home  government  as  well  as 
his  own.     A  prolonged  wrangle  ensued  between  the  two  Houses  over 
a  new  judiciary  act,  which  finally  passed  after  much  amend 
ment.     The  discontent  with  Dobbs  rapidly  increased.      He 
even  quarrelled  about  the  appointment  of  a  printer  and  the  correction 
of  a  private  bill,  and  complaints  poured  in  against  him  in  England. 
Thus  beset,  he  asked  for  leave  of  absence ;  but,  before  he 
could  take  advantage  of  it,  died  at  his  country-seat  in  North 
Carolina. 

His  successor,  William  Tryon,  was  a  conspicuous  example  of  those 
ill-starred  selections  for  high  provincial  office  by  which  England  did 
so  much  to  precipitate  revolution.  He  came  to  North  Carolina  at 
a  time  when  the  Assembly  was  fresh  from  their  altercations  with  his 
predecessor,  when  riots  upon  one  account  or  another  were  breaking 
out  everywhere,  and  when  the  Stamp  Act  was  about  to  be  enforced. 
He  carried  matters  with  a  high  hand  when  it  was  too  late  to  be  of 
any  use ;  and  although  he  met  with  apparent  success,  the  ultimate  re 
sult  of  his  policy  was  to  embitter  the  hostile  feelings  of  the  colonists, 
and  prepare  the  way  for  separation.  He  first  took  measures  to  es 
tablish  the  Church,  and  then  prorogued  the  Assembly,  to  avoid  legis 
lative  resistance  to  the  Stamp  Act.  In  this  he  was  successful.  No 
delegates  were  chosen,  and  North  Carolina  was  not  represented  in  the 
Stamp  Act  Congress.  The  public  indignation  and  the  general  hostility 
to  the  measures  of  Parliament  found  utterance  in  meetings,  addresses, 
and  pamphlets ;  but  there  was  no  concerted  action,  and  the  colony,  as 
a  "whole,  was  not  involved.  Thus  Tryon  avoided  a  conflict  with  the  old 

10 


146  HISTORY  OF  THE 

Assembly,  but  he  made  no  attempt  to  land  the  stamped  paper,  which 
he  knew  would  be  resisted ;  and  when  he  met  his  new  Assem- 
bly  he  was  able  to  announce  to  them  the  repeal  of  the  hated 
law.  From  a  general  feeling  of  gratitude,  the  members  voted  five 
thousand  pounds  to  build  the  Governor's  palace,  a  fresh  imposition 
which  came  at  an  unlucky  moment.  The  people  of  the  back  coun 
ties — poor,  ignorant,  and  lawless — suffered  greatly  from  the  extortion 
ate  fees  exacted  by  all  the  petty  officers  of  the  courts  and  land-of 
fices.  Tryon  showed  no  more  real  disposition  than  his  predecessors 
to  reform  the  fees,  and  the  cost  of  the  new  palace,  greatly  exagger 
ated  by  report,  still  further  incensed  the  settlers  of  the  interior.  As 
sociations  were  formed  and  known  as  "  Regulators,"  who  rapidly  ad 
vanced  to  open  violence,  in  accordance  with  the  prevailing  habit  of 
the  country.  Courts  were  closed;  unpopular  attorneys  and  Crown 
officers  treated  with  brutality ;  and,  finally,  payment  of  taxes  was  re 
fused.  Rioting  had  grown  to  rebellion.  Tryon,  at  the  outset,  took 
measures  to  repress  the  troubles,  and  arrested  two  of  the  ringleaders ; 
but  he  was  forced  to  release  them,  and  concession  proved  of  no  avail. 
Success  had  turned  the  heads  of  the  insurgents.  One  violent  act  suc 
ceeded  another ;  illegal  combinations  extended ;  to  the  abolition  of  fees 
was  now  added  that  of  all  debts,  and  terror  and  anarchy  prevailed  in 
the  back  counties.  Husbands,  the  leader  of  the  rebellion,  had  been 
chosen  to  the  new  Assembly,  and  was  expelled  from  that  body 
as  soon  as  it  came  together.  The  Assembly  also  took  meas 
ures  to  enforce  the  laws  by  the  ordinary  machinery  of  the  courts,  but 
this  was  manifestly  too  feeble,  and  Tryon  determined  to  bring  mat 
ters  to  a  final  decision.  He  called  out  the  militia,  marched  into  the 
most  disturbed  county,  saved  his  army  by  his  energy  and  activity, 
and  utterly  routed  a  force  of  insurgents  three  times  as  large  as  his 
own.  Some  of  the  insurgents  were  hung,  others  fled,  and  the  major 
ity  took  advantage  of  Tryon's  proclamation  of  indemnity,  and  submit 
ted.  If  Tryon  had  been  as  good  an  administrator  as  he  was  a  gen 
eral,  much  might  now  have  been  done  to  remedy  the  evil  state  into 
which  North  Carolina  had  fallen ;  but  he  was  not  fit  for  the  task, 
and  only  increased  the  hostility  to  the  government  in  the  body  of  the 
people. 

His  successor,  Josiah  Martin,  was  a  change  for  the  worse.     The  ad 
miration  of  Tryon  by  the  usual  supporters  of  the  government 
disgusted  Martin,  who  strove  to  curry  favor  with  the  Regula 
tors  and  the  most  turbulent  of  the  population.     In  this  task  he  sue- 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  147 

ceeded  so  well  that  he  led  them  into  armed  opposition  to  the  Rev 
olution;  but  he  did  nothing  to  remedy  the  evils,  legal,  financial, 
and  social,  which  beset  the  province.  He  quarrelled  bitterly  with  the 
Assembly,  who,  to  defeat  him,  encouraged  popular  license  and  dis 
order  by  advising  evasion  of  taxes,  and  who  themselves  resisted  the 
establishment  of  proper  courts.  In  such  a  colony,  and  among  such 
a  people,  lawless,  and  inflamed  against  all  government,  there  was  abun 
dant  material  for  the  Revolution,  and  local  quarrels  fostered  those 
of  national  significance.  In  Governor  Tryon's  time  strong  resolu 
tions  had  passed  the  Assembly,  denying  generally  the  right  of  Eng 
land  to  tax  the  colonies;  and  when  the  Virginian  resolutions  of  March, 
1773,  were  laid  before  them,  they  approved  at  once  the  action 
°^  ^eir  neighbor,  and  appointed  a  Committee  of  Correspond 


ence.     This  done,  angry  domestic  broils  over  the  old  subjects 

of  taxes,  fees,  courts,  and  the  powers  of  the  Assembly  once  more  su 

pervened,  and  the  great  issues  involving  the  fate  of  a  continent  were 

again  lost  sight  of.     But  when  the  summons  to  a  Congress  came 

from  Massachusetts,  North  Carolina  at   once  responded,  by 

choosing  delegates  in  a  popular  convention.     Colonial  and 

provincial  days  were  over,  and  the  history  of  North  Carolina  became 

part  of  that  of  the  United  States. 


148  HISTORY  OF  THE 


CHAPTER  VI. 

NORTH  CAROLINA  IN  1765. 

NORTH  CAROLINA  was,  with  perhaps  the  exception  of  the  recently 
settled  Georgia,  the  least  important  of  the  southern  group  of  colonies. 
It  was  scarcely  more  than  an  uncivilized  reproduction  of  Virginia,  with 
little  individuality  or  force  of  any  kind.  Unsettled  government,  tur 
bulent,  and  even  riotous  politics,  and  the  character  of  the  population, 
had  so  weakened  every  bond,  and  rendered  society  so  unstable  and 
loose,  that  it  had  hardly  an  existence. 

The  coast  of  the  province  was  hemmed  in  by  sand-banks,  and  al 
most  wholly  deficient  in  safe  and  commodious  harbors.  Near  the 
sea  the  soil  was  light  and  sandy,  and  great  tracts  of  swamp  and  pine 
barrens  offered  neither  a  profitable  nor  a  wholesome  region  for  colo 
nization.1  In  the  interior  the  soil  became  richer,  and  the  country  im 
proved  greatly  as  it  gradually  rose  to  the  summit  of  the  southern  por 
tion  of  the  Alleghany  Range. 

The  population  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution  was  not  far  from  two 
hundred  thousand,  of  which  one-fourth  to  one-half  were  slaves.3  The 
white  population  was  recruited  from  various  sources.  The  controlling 
element  was  of  English  origin,  and  composed  in  large  measure  of  ad 
venturers  and  exiles  from  Virginia  and  the  other  colonies,  supplement 
ed  by  emigrants  from  the  mother  country.  There  were  also  French 
Huguenots,  Moravians,  Palatines  who  came  under  the  leadership  of 
Graffenried,  and  some  Swiss  and  Scotch  in  the  hill  country.  These 
foreign  elements  were  not  numerous,  but  they  were  of  better  quality 


1  Smyth,  i.,  234 ;  ii.,  94 ;  Raynal,  Engl.  Ed.,  1766 ;  Williamson,  ii.,  174. 

a  'ihe  statistics  of  North  Carolina  are  so  hopelessly  vague  that  the  roughest 
approximation  is  alone  possible  in  any  estimate :  Smyth,  i.,  270,  puts  the  popula 
tion  at  270,000,  with  one-half  slaves ;  Martin,  ii.,  395, 1770,  says  150,000,  and  one- 
fifth  slaves. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  149 

than  many  of  the  English  settlers,  and,  as  a  rule,  more  thrifty  and 
industrious.1 

The  government  under  Locke's  constitutions  consisted  of  a  general 
court,  held  by  the  chief -magistrate,  and  was  composed  of  a  proprieta 
ry,  two  assistants,  and  deputies  chosen  by  the  people.3  This  was  after 
ward  converted  into  the  familiar  form  of  Governor,  Council,  and  Dep 
uties.  A  qualification  of  property  in  land  was  required  to  hold  office, 
and  only  freeholders  could  vote.  This  system  was  ingrafted  on  the 
constitution  adopted  when  North  Carolina  became  a  State,  and  by 
which  senators  were  obliged  to  own  three  hundred  acres  of  land,  and 
representatives  one  hundred,  while  the  suffrage  was  restricted  to  free 
holders  of  fifty  acres.3 

For  the  administration  of  justice  the  province  was  divided  into  six 
districts  and  thirty -two  counties.  There  were  two  courts  —  the  su 
preme  court,  with  very  large  jurisdiction,  which  sat  twice  annually  at 
each  district  town ;  and  the  county  or  monthly  courts,  which  met  at 
the  county  towns,  and  were  limited  to  small  causes,  and  the  punish 
ment  of  slaves  and  servants.  The  bench  of  the  county  courts  was  of 
very  inferior  quality,  and  that  of  the  supreme  court  was  little  better.4 
There  was  also  a  court  of  chancery  and  admiralty,  composed  of  the 
Governor  and  Council.  The  county  courts  were  charged  with  the 
care  of  orphans,  to  save  expense  to  the  usually  small  estates,  and  both 
these  and  the  supreme  courts  were  required  to  sit  once  a  year  for 
probate  and  administration.5  The  whole  legal  system  was  very  lax 
and  badly  conducted.  The  terse  phrase  of  Bancroft,  "  that  there  were 
no  laws  and  no  lawyers,"  describes  not  unfairly  the  administration  of 
justice  in  North  Carolina.6  The  laws  were  not  even  printed,  but  only 
read  in  the  market-place,  and  the  assemblies  and  courts  met  here  and 
there  in  private  houses  or  taverns.7 

Revenue  was  raised  for  the  Crown  from  quit-rents,  tonnage  duties, 
and  duties  on  rum  and  wine  ;8  while  the  expenses  of  the  province  were 
met  by  simple  and  direct  taxation  of  polls,  tithables,  free  negroes  and 
their  intermarriage,  and  by  an  excise  on  spirits.9  There  were,  in  ac- 

1  Lawson's  Description  of  North  Carolina,  p.  79 ;  Martin,  i.,  233  ;  Smyth,  i.,  162, 
216.  2  Martin,  ii.,  205. 

3  Iredcll,  Laws  of  North  Carolina  ;  Constitution  of  State. 

4  Smyth,  i.,  234 ;  Iredell,  1722, 1766 ;  Martin,  ii.,  205.  6  Iredell,  1762. 

6  Bancroft's  History  of  the  United  States,  ii.,  164. 

7  Bancroft,  ibid. ;  Williamson,  i.,  162. 

8  Iredell,  1738, 1749, 1756.  9  Ibid.,  1723, 1734, 1738. 


150  HISTORY  OF  THE 

cordance  with  the  Virginian  fashion,  public,  county,  and  parish  levies, 
collected  by  the  sheriffs.1  Taxation  was  light ;  but  it  was  sedulously 
avoided  by  the  people,  who  were  clearly  of  opinion  that  all  taxes  were 
an  evil,  and  was  only  enforced  with  the  greatest  difficulty ;  so  much 
so  that  the  government  found  it  necessary  to  get  a  portion  of  its  rev 
enue  by  compelling  the  inhabitants  to  work  on  the  roads,  and  keep 
the  streets  of  the  towns  clean.8 

There  was  an  almost  total  absence  of  professions.  There  was  no 
army  and  no  navy,  and  no  physicians,  except  a  few  surgeons  and 
apothecaries  in  the  towns,  so  unskilled  that  one  traveller  affirms  that 
neither  medical  attendance  nor  nursing  could  be  obtained  in  case  of 
illness.3  Lawyers  were  equally  rare,  except  in  the  towns,  where  there 
were  some  attorneys  of  poor  standing  and  attainments.  The-  lack  of 
lawyers  is  shown  by  the  rapid  rise  of  such  a  man  as  Henderson,  who 
became  a  popular  leader  and  successful  man  simply  by  his  oratory  at 
the  bar.4 

The  case  was  equally  bad  with  the  clergy,  and  the  condition  of  re 
ligion,  and  everything  connected  with  it,  strongly  illustrates  the  ex 
treme  rudeness  of  society  in  North  Carolina.  The  first  minister  was 
settled  in  1703 ;  the  Church  of  England  established  in  1*704;  and  the 
first  church  built  in  1705.6  There  were  no  sects,  says  one  authority,6 
and  the  people  certainly  appear  to  have  been  indifferent  to  theological 
doctrines.  When  the  Quakers  appeared  no  objection  was  raised,  and 
the  North  Carolinians  beguiled  the  hours  of  silent  prayer  by  smoking, 
but  they  indulged  in  no  persecution.7  To  them  one  sect  was  as  good 
as  another,  except  the  Established  Church,  to  which  they  had  a  rooted 
objection,  because  taxes  were  required  for  its  support.  Twenty  years 
and  more  after  the  establishment  of  the  Church  but  little  religious 
progress  had  been  made.  Colonel  Byrd  notes  in  his  journal  that,  for 
"  want  of  men  in  holy  orders,"  justices  of  the  peace  and  members  of 
the  Council  were  empowered  to  marry  those  who  would  not  take  each 
others'  word ;  that  marriage  was  a  lay  contract,  and  christening  whol 
ly  a  matter  of  chance.  He  also  remarks  that  there  was  no  church  in 
Edenton ;  that  the  efforts  of  the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the 
Gospel  had  been  failures ;  and  that  the  people  paid  no  tribute  either 
to  God  or  Caesar."  This  condition  of  affairs  was  in  some  degree  at- 

1  Iredell,  1756.  a  Ibid.,  1738.  3  Smyth,  i.,  98, 130. 

4  Ibid.,  i.,  98, 124, 127.  5  Bancroft,  ii.,  164 ;  Williamson,  i.,  162. 

8  Bancroft,  ibid.  7  Martin,  i.,  155. 

8  Byid  MSrf.,  i.,  44,  46,  59,  60,  65 ;  as  to  lack  of  professions  and  general  condition 
of  North  Carolina,  see  Autobiog.  of  William  Few,  Mag.  Am.  Hist.,  Nov.,  1881,  p.  344. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  151 

tributable  to  the  early  political  conflicts  ;*  but  when  they  ceased,  and 
the  government  turned  its  attention  to  the  religious  establishment,  its 
efforts  were  marked  neither  by  wisdom  nor  success. 

In  the  year  after  Colonel  Byrd  penned  his  observations,  an  act 
was  passed  for  the  regulation  and  inspection  of  vestries  and  church 
wardens.8  Ten  years  later,  although  justices  of  the  peace  were  to 
marry,  the  preference  was  to  be  given  to  the  minister,  under  a  heavy 
penalty,  and  fines  were  exacted  for  marriages  either  within  or  without 
the  church  without  a  license.  'At  the  same  time,  Sunday  laws  were 
passed  against  swearing,  work,  and  profanity  on  the  Lord's-day,  and 
these,  as  well  as  the  act  against  illicit  intercourse  and  in  regard  to  bas 
tards,  were  directed  to  be  read  in  all  the  churches.  The  vestries  were 
to  be  encouraged  by  having  certain  powers  of  local  government  con 
ferred  upon  them.3  The  futility  of  these  attempts  is  clearly  shown  by 
the  continual  legislation  from  this  time  on  in  behalf  of  the  Church.4 
Commissioners  were  appointed  to  build  churches,  wardens  and  vestries 
were  appointed  to  encourage  an  orthodox  clergy,  pastors  were  to  have 
glebes,  money  was  raised  to  complete  churches,  and  sheriffs  were  to 
compel  collectors  to  apply  and  account  for  their  taxes.6  Harsh  ex 
perience  even  taught  the  supporters  of  the  State  Church  the  need  of 
a  little  liberality  for  the  benefit  of  religion  in  general.  Quakers  were 
given  the  custody  of  children  of  their  own  faith,  although  neither 
they  nor  the  Catholics  could  be  appointed  guardians  by  others.6  A 
few  years  later,  Presbyterian  ministers,  but  no  others,  were  given  the 
right  to  marry  by  license,  and  all  previous  marriages  of  any  kind  were 
declared  legal.7  Still  later,  all  marriages  by  dissenters  were  legalized 
through  the  efforts  of  Governor  Tryon.  But  all  legislation,  wise  and 
unwise,  on  this  subject  was  fruitless,  for  the  simple  reason  that  the 
people  paid  no  heed  to  it.  It  was  vain  to  direct  that  the  freeholders 
should  meet  and  choose  vestries  to  lay  taxes  for  the  support  of 
Church  and  clergy,  when  none  of  the  freeholders  wanted  them,  and 
when  in  the  back  counties  such  laws  were  rendered  null  and  void  by 
obstinate  inaction.8  There  is  "very  little  of  the  Gospel  in  all  that 
colony,"  says  one  contemporary,  with  more  truth  than  kindness.9  At 
the  time  of  the  Revolution,  although  ministers  were  nominally  estab- 

1  Willliamson,  i.,  162.  2  Iredell,  Laws,  1729.  3  Ibid.,  1741. 

4  Iredell,  1743,  and  if.  «  Ibid.,  1749, 1754, 1759, 1760, 1770. 

8  Iredell,  1762.       -,.  -  7  Ibid.,  1766. 

8  Ibid.,  1761;  Williamson,  ii.,  116. 

9  Huguenot  Family  in  Virginia,  1754,  p.  344. 


152  HISTORY  OF  THE 

lished  in  every  parish,  there  were  actually  only  six  of  the  English 
Church  in  the  colony.  The  Presbyterians  had  as  many,  and  the  Mo 
ravians  had  the  same  number,  although  their  followers  did  not  num 
ber  more  than  five  hundred.  The  Quakers  were  the  most  numerous 
and  extended.  Besides  these  there  were  no  regular  denominations,  but 
many  itinerant  preachers;  Baptists,  Methodists,  and  New  Lights  wan 
dered  through  the  colony,  and  their  ardent  discourses  seem  to  have 
met  with  general  acceptance.  The  great  majority  of  the  people  were 
dissenters,  and  in  the  frontier  region  without  any  religion  at  all. 
There  is  no  evidence  that  this  arose  from  any  deeply  grounded  and 
well  conceived  opinions,  but  it  is  perfectly  clear  that  the  peculiar  an 
tipathy  of  the  North  Carolinians  to  taxes  had  much  to  do  with  their 
dislike  of  the  State  Church.1 

The  lack  of  professional  pursuits  was  not  made  good  by  any  variety 
in  other  occupations.  Everybody  was  either  a  planter  or  a  store-keeper, 
and  in  the  western  counties  a  hunter.  In  the  towns  there  were  a  few 
mechanics,  shopkeepers,  and  innkeepers,  the  latter  an  influential  and 
popular  class.  All  branches  of  trade  and  manufacture  were  in  the 
hands  of  the  store  -  keepers,  who  sold  everything,  and  supplied  the 
planters  and  farmers.8  The  people  were,  as  a  rule,  wholly  agricultural, 
and  there  was  a  much  greater  variety  of  production  than  in  Virginia. 
Yet  the  agriculture  was  the  lowest  in  all  the  English  colonies.  Land 
was  cleared  by  girdling  trees,  thus  entailing  loss  of  life  and  prop 
erty  from  conflagrations  and  falling  timber.  Crops  were  then  raised, 
until  the  land  was  exhausted ;  when  another  clearing  was  made  and 
the  old  process  repeated,  and  the  fallow  acres  remitted  to  trees  and 
underbrush.3  In  the  northern  counties  the  Virginian  example,  it  is 
true,  was  followed,  and  tobacco  was  the  great  staple;  but  in  the 
southern  portion  rice  and  indigo  were  grown,  and  cotton  was  raised 
of  good  quality,  while  in  the  interior  farm  products  were  the  principal 
interest.4  Throughout  the  province  lumber,  tar,  and  turpentine  were 
produced,  and  returned  great  profits  to  those  engaged  in  the  industry.* 
Cereal  and  grass  crops  were  trifling,  only  sufficient  for  home  con 
sumption.6  There  were  also  immense  herds  of  cattle  and  hogs,  which 
ran  wild,  and  could  be  identified  only  by  brands,  which  it  was  made 


1  Smyth,  i.,  102, 132;  Williamson,  ii.,  180;  Martin,  ii.,  395. 

8  Smyth,!.,  98,  99,114. 

8  Ibid.,  ii.,  94,  96 ;  Martin,  ii.,  395 ;  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  638. 

4  Smyth,  i.,  84 ;  ii.,  97.  6  Martin,  ii.,  395.  8  Byrd  MSS.,  i.,  81. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  153 

penal  to  alter.1  There  were  valuable  fisheries,  but  they  were  little 
developed,  nor  were  the  opportunities  for  a  lucrative  trade  with  the 
Indians  improved.3 

There  were  no  manufactures  of  any  kind.  The  efforts  even  of  the 
Assembly  in  this  direction  had  not  gone  beyond  acts  to  encourage 
leather  tanning  and  grist-mills.8  Every  manufactured  article,  with 
out  exception,  was  imported  from  the  mother  country  or  from  the 
other  colonies.4  At  the  Moravian  towns,  where  whites  worked,  there 
were  some  profitable  industries  and  good  farms,  but  they  were  so  few 
as  hardly  to  form  an  exception.  The  province  depended  wholly  on 
the  North  for  workmen  and  sailors.6  The  same  lack  of  enterprise  char 
acterized  the  commerce  which  was  necessary  to  carry  the  products  of 
the  colony  to  the  markets  of  the  world,  and  this  commerce  was  by 
no  means  unimportant.  The  exports  amounted  to  over  one  hundred 
thousand,  and  the  imports  to  nearly  two  hundred  thousand  pounds.6 
The  carrying  trade  was,  however,  in  a  great  measure  lost.  Much  of 
it  "was  engrossed  by  the  saints  of  New  England,  who  carry  off  a 
great  deal  of  tobacco  without  troubling  themselves  with  paying  that 
impertinent  duty  of  a  penny  a  pound."7  All  foreign  commerce  was 
characterized  by  evasion  of  the  laws  of  the  land,  and  of  trade  as  well. 
The  tobacco  sold  was  largely  of  a  bad  kind  and  inferior  quality,  and 
nothing  was  done  to  improve  this  or  other  exports  by  government 
inspection  until  after  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century.8  Much 
of  the  commerce  was  diverted  from  the  colony  altogether,  and  found 
vent  at  Norfolk  on  the  one  side,  and  Charleston  on  the  other.9  None 
of  the  harbors  admitted  ships  of  large  burden,  yet  nothing  was  done 
to  improve  either  harbors  or  rivers.  The  act  establishing  ports  was 
repealed,  because  it  was  found  that  by  taking  away  the  free  trade  of 
North  Carolina  it  might  benefit  the  Virginians.  Small  vessels  cruised 
up  the  navigable  rivers,  and  picked  up  a  cargo  where  they  could.10 
All  business  transactions  were  further  hampered  by  the  scarcity  of 

1  Iredell,  1715, 1748  ;  Byrd  MSS.,  i.,  32 ;  Smyth,  i.,  144. 

2  Smyth,  i.,  90;  Lawson,  Description,  p.  86. 

3  Iredell,  1727, 1748, 1758.  4  Lawson,  p.  86. 

5  Smyth,  i.,  216 ;  Rochefoucauld,  ii.,  13 ;  Memoirs  of  Elkanah  Watson,  p.  39. 

6  Smyth,  ii.,  98 ;  Martin,  ii.,  395. 

7  Byrd  MSS.,  i.,  23. 

8  Ibid.,  p.  50 ;  Iredell,  1755, 1758, 1759. 

9  Williamson,  ii.,  174 ;  Rochefoucauld,  ii.,  7 ;  Lawson,  p.  86. 
10  Iredell,  1743  ;  Williamson,  ii.,  174 ;  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  638. 


154  HISTORY  OF  THE 

money,  which  induced  payments  in  kind,  and  large  emissions  of  de 
preciated  paper  currency.1 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  with  trade  in  such  a  condition,  and  with 
such  occupations  as  have  been  described,  there  were  no  towns  in 
North  Carolina.  There  were  only  three,  when  Independence  was  de 
clared,  which  could  by  any  stretch  of  the  imagination  be  dignified 
by  such  a  name.  These  were  Wilmington,  Edenton,  and  Newbern, 
sufficiently  pretty  little  villages,  each  of  which  had  been  in  turn  the 
capital,  and  the  largest  of  which  had  a  population  of  about  six  hun 
dred  inhabitants.3  The  legislature  had  erected  many  villages  into 
towns  and  townships,  and  ordered  fairs  to  be  held  in  them  ;  but  they 
remained  villages  still,  with  a  few  scattered  houses,  and,  except  among 
the  Moravians,  mere  centres  of  resort  on  court  and  election  days.3 

The  structure  of  society  was  of  course,  as  the  condition  of  the  pro 
fessions,  of  religion  and  of  trade,  indicates,  loose  and  simple.  At  the 
bottom  of  the  social  scale  was  a  large  body  of  African  slaves  and  a 
small  number  of  indented  white  servants.  The  slaves  were  in  suffi 
cient  numbers  to  cause  the  usual  fear-inspired  and  ferocious  legisla 
tion.  Heavy  fines  were  exacted  from  both  minister  and  culprit  for 
the  intermarriage  of  whites  with  either  negroes  or  Indians,  and  also 
from  those  who  harbored  runaways.  Fugitives  were  whipped  by  order 
of  the  county  courts,  and  could  be  outlawed.  Slaves  were  forbidden 
to  leave  the  plantations  or  to  raise  cattle.4  They  were  not  allowed  to 
carry  guns,  and  their  quarters  were  regularly  searched  for  concealed 
weapons.6  They  could  receive  freedom  only  as  a  reward  for  meritori 
ous  service.  They  were  kept  in  a  state  of  the  densest  and  most  bar 
barous  ignorance ;  and  when  the  Quakers  first  appeared,  and  they  were 
admitted  to  the  meetings,  the  slaves  said,  "They  had  always  been  kept 
in  ignorance,  and  disregarded  as  people  who  were  not  to  expect  any 
thing  from  the  Lord."6  As  in  Virginia,  however,  their  general  treat 
ment  was  said  to  have  been  mild.7 

The  condition  of  the  indented  servants,  although  sufficiently  wretch 
ed,  was,  on  account  of  their  greater  resemblance  to  the  rest  of  the  com 
munity,  better,  and  their  rights  were,  in  appearance  at  least,  more  pro 
tected  than  in  the  northern  colonies.  No  "  imported  Christian  "  was 

1  Williamson,  ii.,  174. 

2  Smyth,  i.,  84,  234  ;  ii.,  87,  89,  93  ;  Byrd  MSS.,  i.,  69 ;  Martin,  ii.,  395 ;  Roche 
foucauld,  i.,  638. 

8  Smyth,  i.,  266 ;  Iredell,  1738,  1749.  4  Ibid.,  1741. 

6  Ibid.,  1753.  •  Life  of  Thomas  Story.  7  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  638. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  155 

to  be  a  servant  without  an  indenture ;  they  had  to  be  brought  before 
the  magistrate  for  corporal  punishment,  and  could  complain  to  the 
courts  if  they  were  wronged.  If  they  ran  away  they  had  to  serve  a 
double  term,  and  they  could  not  marry  without  leave  of  their  masters 
and  the  payment  of  lawful  fees.  If  a  woman  servant  gave  birth  to 
an  illegitimate  child  she  had  to  serve  an  additional  term ;  and  if  the 
master  was  the  father,  then  she  was  sold  by  the  church-wardens  for 
the  public  benefit.1 

The  bulk  of  the  population  above  the  servile  classes  consisted  of 
"  poor  whites  "  and  small  farmers.  There  were  but  few  large  planters ; 
but  such  as  there  were  closely  resembled  those  of  Virginia,  and  were 
often  agreeable  and  intelligent  men.3  These  men,  however,  were  ex 
ceptional.  The  mass  of  the  population  were  small  land-owners  of  va 
rying  degrees  of  ignorance  and  poverty.3  The  turbulent  and  unset 
tled  character  of  the  colony  attracted  many  adventurers  of  the  worst 
class  from  the  other  provinces,  and  the  coast  was  the  favorite  resort 
of  pirates,  with  whom  the  people  had  strong  sympathies.  North  Car 
olina  was  the  refuge  of  all  the  slaves,  criminals,  and  debtors  who  fled 
from  Virginia,  and  found  shelter  and  protection  from  her  southern 
neighbors.4  There  was  a  general  dread,  when  the  boundary-line  was 
run,  of  falling  within  the  Virginian  limits,  because  there  some  order 
and  government  existed;  In  North  Carolina  every  one  did  what  was 
right  in  his  own  eyes.6  "  A  girl  of  good  fortune  and  reputation," 
says  one  Virginian,  no  doubt  with  a  good  deal  of  wholesome  preju 
dice,  "  is  a  thing  somewhat  scarce  in  those  parts,  as  they  have  no  es 
tablished  laws  and  very  little  of  the  Gospel."8 

From  the  want  of  commerce  even  the  best  plantations  afforded  lit 
tle  more  than  a  coarse  subsistence  which  was  cheap  and  plenty.  For 
everything  else  the  planters  ran  in  debt  at  the  country  store,  paying 
in  tobacco,  and  contriving  to  be  generally  a  twelvemonth  in  arrear.' 
This  indifference  to  financial  obligations  was  another  effect  of  the  want 
of  trades,  and  in  the  early  years  caused  the  passage  of  a  law  to  prevent 
the  exportation  of  debtors  without  security  being  given.8  The  general 
feeling  on  the  subject  of  debts  was  better  reflected,  however,  by  later 
legislation,  which  provided  amply  for  the  relief  of  debtors.9 

The  genial  climate,  the  ease  of  obtaining  a  subsistence,  and  the 


1  Iredell,  1741.  9  Smyth,  i.,  103.  3  Ibid.  4  Byrd  MSS.,  i.,  34. 

6  Ibid.,  i.,  34, 46.          fl  Huguenot  Family  in  Virginia,  p.  344, 1754. 

7  Smyth,  i.,  99;  Byrd  MSS.,  i.,  81.         •  Iredell,  1715.          9  Ibid.,  1762, 1773. 


156  HISTORY  OF  THE 

cheapness  and  plenty  of  provisions,  led  to  early  marriages  and  large 
families,  and,  joined  with  the  contempt  for  labor  inspired  by  the  pres 
ence  of  a  servile  class,  made  the  men  slothful  and  lazy  to  the  last  de 
gree.1  While  the  men  lolled  in  bed  or  idled  about  the  farm,  most  of 
the  work  was  done  by  the  women,  who  were  generally  superior  to  their 
husbands.  They  wove  homespun  to  clothe  the  family,  could  handle 
a  canoe,  and  were  ready  to  help  in  planting.  They  managed  the  ac 
counts,  and  the  girls  were  brought  up  to  the  affairs  of  the  farm.2 

Daily  existence  was  solitary  in  the  extreme.  The  farmers  and  plant 
ers  saw  no  one  outside  of  their  families  and  slaves,  except  at  long  in 
tervals.  There  was  very  little  intercourse,  and  communication  between 
different  parts  of  the  province  was  extremely  difficult.3  They  were, 
too,  almost  wholly  cut  off  from  the  world.  A  mail  from  Virginia  and 
the  North  passed  through  the  coast  towns  once  in  a  month ;  but  noth 
ing  was  done  to  encourage  a  local  postal  service  before  the  year  1770.4 
Travelling  was  almost  impossible.  Roads  were  hardly  known  in  the 
interior,  such  bridges  as  there  were  were  dangerous,  and  the  ferries 
were  few,  and  owned  by  individuals.  To  journey  from  one  point  to 
another  the  traveller  had  to  force  his  way  through  dense  forests,  losing 
himself  constantly  at  night  in  the  woods  and  swamps.  Provisions  had 
to  be  carried,  for  there  were  no  inns,  except  near  the  coast,  and  those 
wretchedly  bad.6 

To  a  people  so  isolated  in  their  lives,  the  infrequent  stranger  was 
a  welcome  guest.  The  poor  whites  had  an  ignorant  dread  of  them ; 
but  at  the  plantations  the  traveller  stopped  as  a  matter  of  course,  and 
was  always  received  with  a  good  deal  of  rude  state  and  a  thoroughly 
generous  hospitality."  The  profound  solitude  in  which  most  of  the 
Settlers  dwelt  is  strongly  shown  by  the  law  providing  that  before 
burial  on  a  plantation  the  corpse,  whether  the  deceased  were  bond  or 
free,  should  be  seen  by  two  or  three  of  the  neighbors.7 

There  was,  of  course,  great  dearth  of  amusements.  The  only  meet 
ings  were,  on  court  and  election  days,  at  the  court-house  in  the  midst 
of  the  forest.8  On  these  occasions  there  was  much  drinking  and 
gaming,  and  rough  fighting,  but  the  young  men  were,  nevertheless, 
owing  to  narrow  means  and  early  marriages,  neither  dissolute  nor 


1  Smyth,  i.,  162  ;  Byrd  MSS.>  •*.,  56 ;  Lawson,  p.  79,  86. 

a  Smyth,  i.,  132;  Lawson,  p.  84.  3  Smyth,  i.,  110.  4  Iredell,  1770. 

6  Smyth,  i.,  102, 103,  112, 173,  238 ;  ii.,  100 ;  Memoirs  of  E.  Watson,  p.  39. 

8  Smyth,  i.,  90, 99 ;  Watson,  p.  39.  T  Iredell,  1715.  8  Watson,  p.  39. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  157 

prodigal.1  The  passion  for  gambling,  the  only  form  of  excitement, 
was  probably  excessive,  as  is  shown  by  repeated  laws  against  it ;  but 
this  seems  to  have  been  the  only  prevalent  vice,  and  even  that  could 
find  but  rare  opportunities.3 

There  was  scarcely  any  means  of  education,  and  no  literature  what 
ever.  Printing  was  not  introduced  until  1764  ;  and  at  the  time  of  the 
Revolution  there  were  only  two  schools,  lately  incorporated  at  New- 
bern  and  Edenton,  in  the  whole  province.  An  act  of  the  year  1770, 
to  endow  Queen's  College  at  Charlotte,  was  repealed  by  proclamation  ; 
and  even  after  the  war  for  Independence,  with  the  exception  of  a  fee 
ble  academy  at  Hillsborough,  in  all  relating  to  education  North  Car 
olina  was  far  behind  the  other  States.3 

The  existence  of  slavery  made  the  whites  an  aristocracy  in  fact  and 
feeling,  and  drew  the  distinction  of  rank  strongly  at  the  color  line ; 
but  among  the  whites  themselves  the  democratic  sentiment  prevailed. 
The  law  was  entirely  hostile  to  the  system  of  entail,  and  among  the 
settlers  of  the  back  districts  there  was  an  absolute  hatred  for  the 
word  servant.4 

Society  in  North  Carolina  was  that  of  Virginia  on  a  much  smaller 
and  ruder  scale,  and  with  many  of  the  most  striking  features  of  the 
older  colony  lacking.  The  people  were  very  lawless,  and  averse  to 
order  and  government,5  although  they  had  a  keen  perception  of  their 
own  rights,  as  is  shown  by  the  passage  of  an  act  to  secure  the  Habeas 
Corpus  as  early  as  the  year  1715.6  Ttiey  fell  in  eagerly  with  the 
movement  against  England ;  but  there  was  also  a  numerous  and  ac 
tive  body  of  Tories,  so  that  fierce  internal  dissensions  were  added  to 
the  miseries  of  civil  war. 

It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  such  a  population  and  such  a  so 
ciety  produced  no  great  leaders  in  the  Revolution,  or  that  the  State, 
like  its  northern  counterpart,  Rhode  Island,  lagged  behind  the  others 
in  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution.  But  it  is  a  strong  proof  of  the 
vigor  and  soundness  of  the  English  race  that  this  lawless,  apathetic 
people  finally  raised  themselves  in  the  scale  of  civilization,  and  built 
up  a  strong  and  prosperous  State. 

1  Watson,  1715;  Lawson,  p.  79.  2  Iredell,  1764, 1766, 1770. 

3  Ibid.,  1770 ;  Bancroft,  ii.,  164  ;  Martin,  ii.,  395 ;  Memoirs  of  E.  Watson,  1784. 

4  Iredell,  1715,  Act  for  Intestate  Estates ;  also  1749, 1757. 

6  Cre"vecceur,  p.  67 ;  Smyth,  i.,  132  ;  Byrd,  I,  65  ;  Iredell,  Act  against  Sedition, 
etc.,  1715.  6  Iredell,  1715. 


158  HISTORY  OF  THE 


CHAPTER  VII. 

SOUTH  CAROLINA  FROM   1663  TO  1765. 

As  the  coast  of  North  Carolina  was  the  scene  of  the  first  ill-starred 
attempts  of  Englishmen  to  settle  in  America,  that  of  South  Carolina 
was  the  scene  of  the  first  failures  of  the  French  to  colonize  the  New 
World.  In  the  year  1562  Jean  Ribault  sailed  with  two  ships, 
under  the  auspices  of  Coligny,  to  explore  the  lately  discovered 
regions  of  the  West,  and  find  if  possible  a  spot  where  the  foundation 
of  a  Huguenot  state  could  be  laid.  Ribault  cruised  along  the  coast 
of  Florida,  landing  here  and  there,  and  finally  left  a  company  of  thirty 
men  at  Beaufort,  in  South  Carolina.  The  men  thus  left  behind  were 
mere  adventurers,  soldiers  of  fortune,  who  erected  a  fort,  but  planted 
no  corn ;  who  hoped  to  find  treasures  of  gold  and  silver  and  sud 
den  wealth,  but  had  no  capacity  to  found  a  state.  They  quarrelled 
among  themselves  while  they  waited  helplessly  for  supplies  from 
France.  Ribault  had  not  forgotten  them  ;  but  civil  war  made  it  im 
possible  to  attend  to  the  small  and  distant  colony,  and  at  last  the  lit 
tle  band  of  settlers,  half-starved,  and  having  effected  nothing,  built  a 
pinnace,  ventured  out  to  sea,  and  were  picked  up  by  an  English  ves 
sel.  Before  they  could  reach  home,  a  fresh  expedition  had  been  de 
termined  upon,  which  sailed  in  1564,  commanded  by  Rene  de 
Laudonniere,  an  old  companion  of  Ribault.  On  the  St.  John's 
River  they  founded  their  settlement,  and  the  old  story  was  at  once 
renewed.  They  built  a  fort,  and  then  their  exertions  ceased.  They 
longed  to  find  masses  of  gold  and  silver,  and  listened  eagerly  to  the 
flattering  tales  of  the  Indians.  Their  spirit  was  that  of  the  time — 
a  mere  lust  for  gold — and  the  usual  consequences  followed  in  quick 
succession ;  quarrels  among  themselves,  treachery  toward  the  Indians, 
and  war  with  them,  and  then  famine,  disease,  and  despair.  Just  as 
they  were  losing  all  hope,  Sir  John  Hawkins  came  in  with  his  slavers, 
gave  them  relief,  and  sold  them  one  of  his  ships.  They  were  pre- 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  159 

paring  to  leave  their  settlement,  when  the  long-expected  fleet  from 
France  arrived,  commanded  by  Ribault.  It  would  have  seemed  that 
their  trials  were  now  at  an  end ;  but  the  worst  enemy  of  all  was  still 
to  come  in  men  of  their  own  race  inspired  with  burning  religious 
hatred.  Within  a  week  after  the  arrival  of  the  fleet,  Pedro  Menendez 
appeared  at  the  mouth  of  the  river  Mary,  with  Spanish  ships  and 
Spanish  soldiers,  to  rid  the  New  World  of  the  heretic  Huguenots. 
Part  of  the  French  fleet  got  to  sea,  part  was  at  Fort  Caroline.  Me 
nendez  marched  overland  to  the  fort  and  captured  it ;  and  then  came 
treachery  and  massacre  of  prisoners,  the  arrival  of  the  French  ships 
and  more  treachery,  more  butchery  of  helpless  prisoners,  and  thus  the 
extirpation  of  the  Huguenots.  The  Spaniards  followed  up  this  bloody 
beginning  by  founding  St.  Augustine,  the  first  permanent  settlement 
of  Europeans  in  the  United  States.  France  took  no  steps  to  avenge 
this  awful  wrong;  but  in  1568  retribution  came  at  the  hands 
of  Dominique  de  Gourgues,  a  gallant  adventurer  of  the  type 
peculiar  to  the  time,  who  landed  in  Florida,  surprised  the  forts,  and 
put  the  Spaniards  to  the  sword  with  as  little  mercy  as  they  had  shown 
to  his  countrymen.  The  Spanish  settlement  survived  the  shock,  and 
struggled  on,  but  never  grew  nor  spread,  nor  came  to  any  good.  The 
French  efforts,  however,  had  failed  ;  and  South  Carolina,  the  scene  of 
their  first  attempt,  relapsed  into  the  wilderness,  where  savages  wander 
ed  undisturbed.  A  century  passed  away  before  a  new  trial  was  made ; 
but  this  time  the  men  were  of  another  nation,  one  which  had  learned 
the  art  of  colonization,  and  had  the  natural  talent  of  ruling  races,  for 
founding  new  states,  and  governing  distant  provinces. 

South  Carolina  was  part  of  the  magnificent  territory  which  Charles 
II.  gave  to  Clarendon  and  Albemarle  and  others  of  his  followers,  and 
for  which  Shaftesbury  and  Locke  devised  their  famous  constitution 
— a  monument  of  brilliant  and  futile  theorizing.  Several  years  pass 
ed  away  after  the  charter  was  granted  before  the  lord  proprietors  did 
anything  more  than  contemplate  the  orders  of  nobility,  and  the  elab 
orate  system  of  government  which  Locke  had  produced.  In  1667 
William  Sayle  visited  the  coast,  and  his  report  was  so  favorable  that 
he  was  sent  out  two  years  later  prepared  to  colonize.  After  landing 
at  Beaufort,  Sayle  made  his  way  northward,  and  finally  fixed 
his  head-quarters  on  the  Ashley  river,  while  a  settlement  was 
also  started  lower  down,  at  the  confluence  of  the  Ashley  and  Cooper 
rivers — the  point  to  which  the  capital  was  subsequently  removed,  and 
where  the  present  city  of  Charleston  was  founded.  Sayle  soon 


160  HISTORY  OF  THE 

died,  and  was  succeeded  by  Sir  John  Yeamans,  one  of  the  landgraves 
of  the  Locke  constitutions,  who  ruled  over  the  languishing  colony  for 
about  four  years,  with  little  profit  to  anybody  except  himself.  Re 
turning  to  the  Barbadoes  in  the  year  1674,  he  was  succeeded 
by  Joseph  West,  the  commercial  agent  of  the  proprietaries, 
under  whose  direction  the  first  Assembly  was  called,  and  government 
organized  on  the  practical  English  model,  and  without  the  least  re 
gard  to  Locke's  beautiful  and  symmetrical  scheme.  The  early  settlers 
were,  as  usual,  for  the  most  part  broken-down  adventurers  and  other 
vicious  characters  from  London,  with  a  sprinkling  of  sturdy  colonists 
from  the  North,  and  some  restless  dissenters  from  the  mother  coun 
try.  The  first  necessity  was  order,  and  this  West  maintained,  playing 
the  same  part  in  South  Carolina  that  Dale  had  played  in  Virginia, 
and  giving  the  settlement  the  opportunity  to  strike  root  and  acquire 
permanence.  West  was  a  shrewd,  competent  man,  not  over-scrupu 
lous,  but  able  to  govern  with  a  strong  hand  the  disorderly  elements 
about  him.  He  found  the  colony  loaded  with  debt,  and  embroiled 
with  the  proprietaries ;  but  he  held  it  together,  and  steered  through 
all  difficulties,  moving  the  capital,  and  fighting  a"n  Indian  war,  which 
he  made  profitable  as  well  as  successful  by  selling  the  prisoners  into 
slavery.  This  rather  savage  traffic,  and  his  leaning  to  the  dissenters, 
brought  West  into  disfavor  with  the  proprietaries,  and  he  was  removed, 
to  be  replaced  by  Joseph  Moreton,  who  called  another  Parlia 
ment  or  Assembly,  which  led  to  an  outbreak  of  factious  con 
tention,  and  to  the  usurpation  of  all  legislative  power  by  the  people 
of  Charleston.  This  new  Parliament  passed  a  law  to  prevent  the 
prosecution  of  foreign  debts,  which  so  enraged  the  proprietaries  that 
they  removed  Moreton,  and  West  again  came  in  for  a  brief  term. 
The  disorderly  elements  in  South  Carolina  had  now  fairly  got  beyond 
control,  and  the  factious  turbulence  which  ensued  would  have  wreck 
ed  the  colony  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  years  of  comparative  quiet 
during  West's  first  term.  Besides  the  troubles  arising  from  the  char 
acter  of  the  early  settlers,  there  were  many  special  subjects  of  con 
flict.  The  religious  controversies  of  the  mother  country  were  trans 
ferred  to  the  colony,  the  only  difference  being  that  the  dissenters,  who 
were  crushed  at  home,  were  here  in  a  majority.  The  Cavalier  and 
Church  party  was  favored  by  the  proprietaries,  and  endeavored  to 
keep  all  government  in  their  own  hands,  but  they  were  overborne  by 
the  dissenters,  upon  whom  West  appears  to  have  leaned.  His  removal 
and  the  supremacy  of  the  Church  party  only  led  to  still  fiercer  con- 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  161 

flicts.  Another  subject  of  quarrel  was  the  distribution  of  representa 
tion,  which  resulted  finally  in  a  seizure  of  all  legislative  power  by  the 
Charleston  district,  and  the  practical  disfranchisement  of  the  other 
counties.  Still  another  struggle  was  caused  by  the  immigration  of 
the  Huguenots — people  of  most  excellent  character,  who  settled  chief 
ly  in  Craven  county.  The  English  settlers  refused  to  give  them  rep 
resentation  or  political  rights,  and  excluded  them  for  a  time  from  the 
Assembly,  although  their  cause  was  strenuously  supported  by  the  pro 
prietaries.  Still  another  source  of  trouble  was  found  in  the  pirates 
infesting  the  coasts,  and  making  their  head  -  quarters  at  Charleston, 
where  they  were  popular  and  well  received  because  they  spent  money, 
and  brought  thither  their  ill-gotten  gains  to  enrich  the  colony.  These 
buccaneers  preyed  on  Spanish  commerce  and  Spanish  possessions; 
the  Spaniards  retaliated  naturally  on  the  English  settlements,  and  the 
South  Carolinians  prepared  to  invade  Florida,  and  were  only  stopped 
by  the  proprietaries,  who  had  no  wish  to  see  their  enterprise  bring 
on  a  war  between  Spain  and  England.  Attempts  were  made  by  the 
government  to  stop  this  piracy;  but  the  pirates  were  acquitted  by  the' 
Charleston  courts,  and  nothing  effectual  was  done  until  the  general 
suppression  of  piracy  under  William  III.  In  the  midst  of  all  these 
contentions,  it  is  almost  impossible  to  describe  the  parties.  Each 
new  quarrel  begot  new  factions.  The  body  of  the  dissenters  was 
sound,  and  so  were  those  who  supported  the  government;  but  between 
these  was  the  old  vicious  and  dissolute  band  of  adventurers  of  broken 
fortunes,  active  and  unscrupulous,  opposed  to  every  form  of  govern 
ment  and  order,  in  league  with  the  pirates,  and  ready  to  take  advan 
tage  of  every  fresh  conflict.  In  all  this  confusion  governors  came 
and  went  with  extraordinary  rapidity.  West,  Moreton,  Kyle,  Quarry, 
and  Colleton  succeeded  each  other  within  two  years.  Colleton 
called  a  Parliament  on  his  accession,  which  resisted  him  to  the 
utmost,  and  sent  laws  for  approval  to  the  proprietaries,  which  were  in 
dignantly  rejected.  At  last  parties  began  to  crystallize  into  that  of 
the  proprietaries,  and  that  of  opposition  to  their  rule.  The  latter  pre 
vailed.  In  the  next  Parliament  they  attacked  Colleton  more  fiercely 
than  ever,  and  he  unwisely  undertook  to  declare  martial  law.  Open 
revolt  followed.  Sothel,  fresh  from  his  exploits  in  North  Carolina, 
whence  he  had  been  driven  out,  appeared  on  the  scene  and  usurped 
the  government  in  his  quality  of  Palatine.  He  resorted  at 
once  to  his  old  extortion,  corruption,  and  oppression,  lost  the 
confidence  of  the  people,  over  whom  he  tyrannized,  and  was  finally 

11 


162  HISTORY  OF  THE 

obliged  to  withdraw  and  hide  in  Albemarle  by  the  orders  of  the  pro 
prietaries,  now  thoroughly  alive  to  his  character.  He  was  succeeded 
by  Philip  Ludwell,  of  Virginia,  the  first  general  Governor  of  both 
Carolinas.  Ludwell  proved  incompetent,  unable  to  deal  with  piracy, 
or  to  resist  the  popular  factions,  and  was  soon  removed  to  make 
room  for  Thomas  Smith,  one  of  the  leading  planters.  Smith 
did  little  better  than  his  predecessor,  but  his  term  of  office  was 
marked  by  the  introduction  of  rice — the  future  source  of  wealth  to 
the  colony — and  by  the  abandonment  of  the  attempt  to  establish  the 
"  Grand  Model "  of  Locke.  The  Parliament  became  an  Assembly, 
and  Locke's  fine  scheme  was  at  an  end.  Faction  and  disorder  did  not 
cease,  however,  and  on  Smith's  representation  that  only  a  proprietor 
would  suffice  as  Governor,  Joseph  Archdale,  a  Quaker,  and  one  of  the 
proprietaries,  came  out  and  assumed  the  government. 

The  party  of  the  proprietaries,  including  the  officials  and  the 
Churchmen,  and  the  opposition,  comprising  the  dissenters  and  the 
great  majority  of  the  settlers,  were  now  fairly  face  to  face,  and  feel 
ing  ran  very  high,  particularly  in  regard  to  the  quit-rents,  which  the 
colonists  refused  to  pay,  and  which  were  a  standing  grievance  and 
a  constant  cause  of  conflicts  whenever  efforts  were  made  to  collect 
them.  Archdale  was  a  good  appointment.  He  was  not  only 
a  dissenter,  and  therefore  in  sympathy  with  the  colonists,  but 
he  was  a  wise,  firm,  and  prudent  man,  and  a  good  administrator.  He 
came  with  almost  unlimited  powers,  and  set  to  work  at  once  to  allay 
dissensions.  He  conciliated  the  Assembly ;  appointed  popular  men 
to  the  Council ;  remitted  arrears  of  quit-rents ;  examined  grievances 
of  all  sorts ;  made  peace  with  the  Indians ;  and  provided  for  the  de 
fence  of  the  colony.  So  well  did  he  do  his  work  during  his  year  of 
office,  that  his  successor,  Joseph  Blake,  a  nephew  of  the  great 
admiral,  was  able  to  rule  peaceably  in  South  Carolina  for  the 
rest  of  the  century,  and  the  colony  gained  a  much  needed  breathing 
space,  and  time  to  give  attention  to  the  development  of  the  great  ma 
terial  resources  of  the  country.  Even  under  Blake,  however,  the  col 
onists  refused,  in  Assembly,  to  accept  laws  sent  out  by  the  proprieta 
ries;  but  they  adopted  a  liberal  policy  toward  the  French  refugees, 
who  were  secured  in  their  lands  and  rights,  and  rapidly  assimilated 
with  the  English,  as  the  Huguenots  did  in  all  the  colonies.  At  the 
same  time,  religious  toleration  was  assured  to  all  Christians  except 
Papists. 

As  the  century  opened,  Blake's  peaceful  rule  was  closed  by  his 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  163 

death,  and  James  Moore  became  Governor.  Political  strife  had  already 
been  renewed.  The  lower  House,  under  the  lead  of  Nicholas 
Trott,  an  active  and  capable  popular  leader,  denied  to  the 
Governor  and  Council  the  right  of  appointing  public  officers,  and  re 
fused  to  recognize  their  appointees.  Governor  Moore,  a  needy  and 
adventurous  man  who  had  pushed  himself  into  office,  found  this  quar 
rel  on  his  hands,  and  matters  were  further  complicated  by  the  in 
structions  of  Lord  Granville,  the  Palatine,  to  introduce  the  Establish 
ed  Church.  To  this  the  Assembly,  controlled  by  the  dissenters,  op 
posed  a  stubborn  and  successful  resistance,  and  they  now  regretted 
that  they  had  voted  a  salary  to  the  rector  of  the  Episcopal  church. 
Moore,  however,  was  bent  on  gain,  not  on  religion.  He  renewed  the 
infamous  traffic  in  Indian  slaves,  and  attempted  to  pass  a  bill  giving 
to  himself  the  control  of  the  Indian  trade.  This  last  measure  was 
defeated  in  Assembly,  and  Moore  then  threw  himself  into  party  poli 
tics.  Nicholas  Trott  was  brought  over  to  government  by  the  office 
of  attorney-general,  and  the  elections  were  carried  for  the  Governor 
by  force  and  fraud.  The  rupture  between  Spain  and  England,  how 
ever,  led  Moore  to  turn  his  attention  to  another  quarter.  He  invaded 
Florida;  but  the  expedition  failed,  and  the  only  result  was  a  crippling 
public  debt.  An  Indian  war  in  which  Moore  next  engaged  was  more 
successful,  and  the  tribes  were  routed  and  beaten. 

Moore  had  hardly  concluded  his  Indian  war  when  Sir  Nathaniel 
Johnson  came  out  as  his  successor.  The  new  Governor  was 
an  incompetent  and  narrow-minded  man,  devoted  to  the  in 
terests  of  the  Church.  Backed  by  the  officials,  among  whom  Moore 
and  Trott  were  prominent,  Johnson  procured  the  passage  of  an  act 
excluding  those  who  denied  the  authority  of  the  Bible  from  the  As 
sembly,  and  followed  it  up  by  another  law  excluding  all  who  were 
not  members  of  the  Church  of  England.  The  struggle  now  broke 
forth  with  bitterness ;  the  proprietaries,  appealed  to  by  both  sides,  un 
der  the  lead  of  Granville,  and,  despite  the  remonstrance  of  Archdale, 
supported  the  Governor,  who,  encouraged  by  his  success,  proceeded 
to  take  steps  for  building  churches,  providing  pastors,  and  for  the 
appointment  of  a  commission  of  his  own  choosing  to  govern  the 
Church.  The  dissenters,  numbering  two -thirds  of  the  population, 
now  went  further,  and  took  an  appeal  to  the  House  of  Lords.  There 
the  exclusion  of  the  dissenters  and  the  act  relating  to  religious  wor 
ship  were  condemned,  and  the  Queen  ordered  steps  to  be  taken  for 
the  revocation  of  the  charter.  While  these  matters  were  pending, 


164  HISTORY  OF  THE 

Johnson  had  an  opportunity  to  show  himself  in  a  better  light  by  suc 
cessfully  repulsing  a  French  attack  upon  Charleston.     As  the 
legal  proceedings  were  dragging  along,  Lord  Granville  died, 
and  was  succeeded  by  Lord  Craven,  a  moderate  man,  who  sent  out 
Colonel  Edward  Tynte  as  Governor,  with  instructions  so  con 
ciliatory  that  it  seemed  as  if  all  differences  might  be  healed ; 
but  quiet  had  hardly  been  restored  when  Tynte  unfortunately  died, 
and  a  factious  and  corrupt  contest,  resulting  in  the  election  of 
Robert  Gibbes,  took  place  for  the  governorship.     Gibbes  was, 
however,  soon  displaced  by  the  proprietaries,  who  appointed  Charles 
Craven,  brother  of  Lord  Craven,  and  a  representative  of  his 
moderate   policy,  Governor ;   and   under  his  temperate   and 
wise  rule  the  colony  obtained  a  brief  respite  from  domestic  discord. 
His  administration  was  marked,  however,  by  two  Indian  wars  —  one 
with  the  Tuscaroras  for  the  relief  of  North  Carolina,  and  the  other 
and  more  extensive  one  with  the  Yamasees.     In  both  conflicts  Cra 
ven  was  successful,  and  the  South  Carolinians,  officers  and  men,  be 
haved  well ;  but  the  result  was  to  sink  the  province  still  fur 
ther  in  debt,  and  render  the  paper  currency  and  the  raising  of 
money  to  meet  obligations  burning  political  questions.     Craven  re 
turned  to  England  after  a  term  of  four  years,  leaving  Robert 
Daniel  in  charge  of  the  province  until  Robert  Johnson,  the 
son  of  the  former  Governor  of  that  name,  arrived. 

Johnson,  unlike  his  father,  was  a  good  governor  and  competent  man, 
besides  possessing  a  genuine  popularity.  But  no  amount  of  popular 
ity  or  ability  was  sufficient  to  enable  any  man  to  deal  successfully  with 
public  affairs  in  South  Carolina.  The  proprietary  government  was 
radically  vicious,  and,  whether  its  policy  was  good  or  bad,  it  invariably 
ran  counter  to  the  wishes  of  the  people,  and  there  was  nothing  to  sus 
tain  it  against  the  effects  of  popular  resentment.  The  attempts  of  the 
proprietaries  to  force  the  Established  Church  upon  the  colonists  had 
produced  a  conflict  of  which  the  effects  were  still  felt,  and  Johnson 
came  out  hampered  with  instructions  which  seemed  designed  to  take 
all  power  from  the  Assembly.  Not  only  did  the  King  disapprove  the 
law  for  duty  on  imports,  the  only  means  of  sinking  the  debt,  but  the 
proprietaries  asserted  the  right  to  repeal  all  acts  of  the  Assembly,  and 
did  repeal  two,  generally  and  rightly  esteemed  of  great  value — one  to 
regulate  elections,  and  another  to  regulate  the  Indian  trade.  This  sort 
of  interference  was  bad  enough ;  but  there  were  other  and  worse  griev 
ances.  The  proprietaries  encouraged  every  oppressive  scheme  put  for- 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  165 

ward  by  the  officials,  and  strove  to  wring  all  possible  revenue  from  the 
province,  while  they  utterly  neglected  it,  and  declined  to  give  any  help 
in  the  Indian  wars.  This  refusal  to  aid  the  colonists  led  them,  of  course, 
to  appeal  to  the  Crown,  and  to  look  more  and  more  to  the  strong  arm 
of  the  sovereign  for  shelter  and  protection.  Lands  won  by  the  sword 
from  the  Indians,  and  thrown  open  to  immigrants  by  the  Assembly,  were 
torn  from  the  settlers,  and  distributed  in  baronies  and  seigniories  among 
the  proprietors.  Another  and  still  worse  grievance  was  to  be  found 
in  the  condition  of  the  courts.  Nicholas  Trott,  the  popular  leader  of 
early  days,  had  improved  his  opportunities  since  he  had  been  bought 
by  the  attorney-generalship,  and  had  risen  to  be  chief-justice.  By  vis 
iting  England,  he  had  obtained  the  confidence  of  the  proprietaries,  and 
control  of  their  secretary,  to  whom  the  management  of  affairs  was  very 
largely  intrusted.  In  this  way  Trott  became  not  only  chief-justice, 
judge  of  the  vice-admiralty  court,  president  of  the  Council,  and  some 
times  acting  Governor,  but  he  was  mainly  instrumental  in  causing  the 
ruinous  policy  of  the  proprietaries. 

With  matters  in  this  unpromising  state,  new  burdens  were  thrust 
upon  South  Carolina.  The  pirates,  who  in  earlier  days  had  been  wel 
comed  in  Charleston,  now  ruined  the  commerce  of  the  city,  and  sapped 
the  prosperity  of  the  province.  They  were  under  the  lead  of  Teach, 
"  Black  Beard,"  whose  head-quarters  were  in  North  Carolina.  Deter 
mined  efforts  were  at  last  necessary  to  suppress  them ;  and  Johnson 
opened  the  way  by  sending  out  Rhett,  who  captured  one  of  the  prin 
cipal  captains,  and  by  going  himself  in  pursuit  of  another,  who  was 
finally  seized  after  a  bloody  fight.  Johnson's  personal  bravery  and 
enterprise  won  for  him  great  popularity ;  but  these  expeditions  pro 
duced  more  debt,  and  required  more  taxation,  and  thus  led  to  renewed 
and  bitter  controversy.  The  conduct  of  Trott,  too,  had  finally  become 
so  outrageous,  and  the  courts  so  bad,  that  the  Assembly  and  the  bar  sent 
out  one  of  the  Council,  Francis  Yonge,  to  remonstrate  with  the  pro 
prietaries.  Their  appeal  was  treated  with  contempt,  and  brought  fresh 
instructions  to  Johnson  to  enforce  the  rights  and  prerogatives  of  the 
proprietaries,  and  persist  in  every  way  in  the  policy  already  entered 
upon. 

This  brought  matters  to  a  point  where  a  trifle  would  cause  revolu 
tion,  and  the  needed  impulse  came  from  the  dread  of  a  Spanish  inva 
sion.  Johnson  wished  to  put  the  province  in  a  state  of  defence,  and 
asked  for  money.  The  Assembly  pointed  to  the  tax  on  imports,  and 
were  told  it  was  repealed.  They  declared  they  would  enforce  it,  and 


166  HISTORY  OF  THE 

Trott  swore  that  the  courts  would  sustain  those  who  refused  to  pay. 
The  members  of  the  Assembly  now  formed  associations;  and  when 
Johnson  called  out  the  militia,  to  prepare  for  the  Spaniards,  the 
troops  revolted  and  went  over  to  the  Assembly,  which  became  a  con 
vention,  elected  James  Moore  Governor,  chose  a  council,  and  made 
themselves  masters  of  the  government.  The  practical  deposi 
tion  of  Johnson,  although  he  tried  to  maintain  himself  for  a 
year  or  two  longer,  and  even  ventured  a  futile  attack  on  Charleston,  at 
tracted,  of  course,  immediate  attention  in  England,  where  the  action  of 
the  colonists  harmonized  too  well  with  the  general  policy  of  convert 
ing  all  charter  and  proprietary  provinces  into  royal  governments,  to 
be  neglected.  The  Crown  interfered ;  the  old  inquiry  of  Anne's  time 
was  revived,  and  the  attorney -general  ordered  to  look  into  the  affairs 
of  the  proprietaries  and  find  out  the  extent  of  their  misgovern ment. 
If  everything  else  failed,  the  omission  of  the  proprietaries  to  spread 
the  Christian  religion  among  the  savages  could  be  used  for  the  abro 
gation  of  the  charter,  of  which  proselyting  the  heathen  was  nominally, 
at  least,  a  main  object.  In  the  mean  time,  Sir  Francis  Nichol 
son  was  sent  out  as  provisional  Governor.  Whatever  Nichol 
son's  faults  and  failings  had  been  jn  the  other  colonies  over  which  he 
had  ruled — and  they  had  been  neither  few  nor  small — he  was  now,  at 
least,  a  man  of  wide  experience  in  colonial  administration,  and  he  had 
learned  many  lessons.  Coming,  as  he  did,  backed  with  the  vast  power 
of  the  Crown,  to  South  Carolina,  which  had  hardly  known  anything 
but  turbulence  and  insurrection,  he  was  received  with  joy,  and  with  a 
deep  sense  of  relief.  The  proprietary  party  sank  out  of  sight,  and 
Nicholson,  free  to  turn  his  attention  to  the  general  good,  treated  suc 
cessfully  with  the  Indians,  did  much  for  religion  and  the  Church,  and 
even  made  vigorous  exertions  to  introduce  some  sort  of  public  edu 
cation.  He  withdrew  after  a  term  of  four  years,  leaving  the  govern 
ment  in  the  hands  of  Arthur  Middleton.  On  this  change  the  proprie 
tary  party  immediately  revived  in  the  province,  and  in  England  claim 
ed  the  right  first  of  appointing  a  Governor,  although  the  writ  of  quo 
warranto  was  actually  issued,  and  then  demanded  the  right  of  consent 
ing  to  the  nomination  by  the  Crown.  Fortunately  for  South  Caro 
lina,  the  contest  was  too  unequal  and  too  hopeless  to  be  per 
sisted  in,  and  after  a  year  or  two  the  proprietaries  sold  both 
Carolinas  to  the  Crown. 

In  pursuance  of  Nicholson's  policy,  Sir  Alexander  Gumming  was 
sent  to  push  further  negotiations  with  the  Indians.      Returning  to 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  167 

England,  he  brought  six  chiefs  with  him,  who  went  back  in  the  fol 
lowing  year  with  Sir  Robert  Johnson,  the  first  royal  Gover 
nor,  who,  now  that  he  was  freed  from  his  duty  to  the  proprie 
taries,  was  received  with  enthusiasm  by  the  colonists,  whose  favor  he 
had  retained  through  all  his  conflicts  with  them.  With  the  estab 
lishment  of  the  royal  government  the  whole  condition  of  public  af 
fairs  in  South  Carolina  underwent  a  marked  change.  The  form  of 
government  was  that  common  in  the  royal  provinces — of  Governor, 
Council,  and  Assembly — the  former  appointed,  the  latter  elected.  But 
the  sense  of  permanence  and  security  given  by  the  Crown  was  the  chief 
advantage  derived  by  the  colony.  The  restraint  upon  the  exportation 
of  rice  was  removed,  and  a  bounty  on  hemp  allowed  by  Parliament. 
The  arrears  of  quit-rents  were  remitted,  and  the  bills  of  credit  were 
continued.  Cannon  were  sent  out,  forts  were  built,  troops  were  sta 
tioned  at  Charleston,  and  ships-of-war  were  granted  to  defend  their 
commerce.  These  measures  and  the  strength  of  the  new  government 
drew  the  attention  of  English  merchants  to  the  province,  and  trade 
increased  with  great  rapidity,  while  large  bodies  of  immigrants,  in 
cluding  Scotch,  Irish,  and  Swiss,  came  out  to  settle.  Land,  now  easily 
obtainable,  rose  quickly  in  value,  and  was  taken  up  by  the  planters  in 
large  tracts,  too  large,  indeed,  for  the  general  prosperity.  The  estab 
lishment  of  the  colony  of  Georgia  did  much  to  increase  the  safety  of 
the  colony  by  beginning  a  line  of  settlements  on  the  southern  front 
ier,  where  the  attacks  of  the  Spaniards  and  Indians  had  hitherto  been 
a  constant  danger. 

Although  the  fall  of  the  weak  and  ill-conducted  government  of  the 
proprietaries  had  put  a  stop  to  the  bitter  and  violent  factions  of  South 
Carolina,  parties  were  by  no  means  extinct,  and  the  opposition  to  gov 
ernment,  which  had  achieved  a  substantial  victory  by  the  transfer  of 
the  province  to  the  Crown,  soon  became  active.  The  too  rapid  tak 
ing  of  lands  received  the  royal  veto,  and  the  Assembly  were  soon  en 
gaged  in  a  vigorous  contest  with  the  courts  and  the  law  officers  of  the 
Crown,  and  even  refused  to  allow  the  writ  of  Habeas  Corpus  in  favor 
of  those  whom  they  committed  for  resistance  to  their  will.  The  As 
sembly  also  insisted  on  voting  the  salary  of  the  Governor  annually, 
which  caused  a  steady  conflict  with  that  officer.  Even  John 
son's  popularity  could  not  prevail  here,  although  when  he  died 
the  Assembly  erected  a  handsome  monument  to  his  memory. 

Johnson  was  succeeded  by  Thomas  Broughton  —  one  of  the  old 
leaders  against  the  proprietaries — and  the  popular  party  was  now  in 


168  HISTORY  OF  THE 

full  possession,  and  under  his  rather  weak  rule  they  still  further  in 
flated  the  currency  by  the  issue  of  one  hundred  thousand  pounds  in 
bills  of  credit.  The  unchecked  sway  of  the  Assembly  seemed,  indeed, 
to  threaten  a  recurrence  of  the  old  factions,  and  a  consequent  diminu 
tion  in  the  prosperity  of  the  colony.  But  Broughton's  term 
1738  °^  °®ce  was  no^  Pr°l°nged.  He  died  after  two  years  of  ser 
vice,  and  Samuel  Horsley,  who  was  appointed  to  succeed  him, 
died  before  leaving  England;  so  that  the  government  devolved  on 
William  Bull,  President  of  the  Council,  and  Lieutenant-governor. 
Other  events  of  a  more  serious  nature  also  intervened  to  turn  the 
attention  of  the  colonists  from  political  questions.  Oglethorpe  in 
vaded  Florida,  and  South  Carolina  troops  were  sent  to  join  him. 
The  expedition  failed ;  the  friendly  relations  with  Georgia  changed  to 
dislike  and  suspicion ;  and  while  the  colony  was  thus  harassed  by  the 
danger  from  the  Spaniards,  a  desperate  negro  insurrection  oc 
curred,  which  was  only  suppressed  after  much  bloodshed ;  and 
this  was  in  turn  followed  by  a  fire  in  Charleston,  which  laid  a  large 
part  of  the  city  in  ashes.  Despite  these  drawbacks,  and  the  great  in 
crease  of  debt,  the  colony  throve,  and  grew  rich  from  the  rice  trade, 
and  from  the  production  of  indigo,  which  had  been  lately  introduced. 
Many  of  the  planters  made  large  fortunes,  or  rather  large  incomes, 
and  money  began  to  be  freely  spent,  and  great  luxury  displayed  at 
Charleston. 

The  Spanish  war  was  still  a  cause  of  anxiety,  and  a  descent  on  the 
coast  was  much  feared.     Oglethorpe,  however,  succeeded  in  repulsing 
the  Spaniards  at  Frederica,  and  the  dread  of  invasion  and  of 
negro  revolt  gradually  diminished.    In  the  mean  time,  the  con 
troversy  regarding  the  Crown-lands  had  gone  on  with  increasing  ac 
rimony.     The  agent  of  the  Crown,  sent  out  by  the  government  to  in 
vestigate  the  matter,  had  been  thwarted  and  foiled  by  the  Governor ; 
and  the  popular  party  was  supposed  to  be  encouraged  by  James  Glen, 
a  South  Carolina  proprietor  who  had  been  appointed  Governor,  but 
had  lingered  in  England  to  care  for  the  interests  of  the  province.     At 
last  Glen  arrived  at  Charleston,  where  he  was  warmly  received 
as  a  friend  of  the  colony.     He  was  reproached  in  England 
with  betraying  the  interests  of  the  Crown ;  but  notwithstanding  all 
this,  so  ineradicable  was  the  hostility  between  the  Assembly  and  their 
Governor,  that  Glen  soon  found  occasion  to  compiain  of  the  encroach 
ments  of  the  Council,  and  the  levelling  principles  of  the  popular  rep 
resentatives.     Glen  was,  however,  a  good  Governor,  and  his  contests 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  169 

with  the  Assembly  do  not  appear  to  have  interfered  for  many  years 
with  the  interests  of  the  province.  He  cemented  and  extended  the 
Indian  treaties,  and  obtained  additional  troops  from  England  to  se 
cure  the  colony  from  Spanish  invasion  and  negro  insurrection.  The 
development  of  the  colony  now  progressed  steadily  and  rapidly,  and 
settlements  were  extended  in  all  directions.  The  prosperity  was  un 
checked;  and  the  only  trouble  of  importance  arose  from  the  illicit 
trade  which  sprang  up  here  as  elsewhere  under  the  fostering  influence 
of  the  oppressive  laws. 

This  happy  condition  of  affairs,  however,  began  to  be  darkened  af 
ter  the  middle  of  the  century  by  the  growth  of  the  French  power,  and 
by  the  extension  of  the  French  posts  on  the  west  and  south.     Dis 
tant  as  South  Carolina  was  from  Canada,  the  danger  caused  by  the 
French  system  of  Indian  alliances  began  to  be  felt  even  there.     Gov 
ernor  Glen,  with  wise  prevision,  went  in  person  among  the  Cherokees, 
strengthened  the  old  treaties,  made  new  ones,  and  obtained  the  ces 
sion  of  a  large  tract  of  territory,  of  which  he  took  advantage 
by  erecting  forts  on  the  frontier  in  the  immediate  neighbor 
hood  of  the  Indians,  and  well  adapted  to  protect  the  outlying  settle 
ments.      When,  however,  he  went  a  step  farther,  and  attempted  to 
raise  money  in  support  of  the  war  between  England  and  France,  his 
normal  quarrel  with  the  Assembly  reached  such  a  height  that  the 
grant  of  supplies  was  refused;  and  South  Carolina,  as  was  only  too 
common  in  the  American  colonies  during  the  whole  of  the  war,  re 
mained  entirely  inactive.     In  tha  following  year,  however,  Glen  re 
tired,  and  a  new  governor,  William  Lyttelton,  came  out  from 
England.     He  succeeded  in  soothing  the  Assembly,  obtained 
a  grant,  enlisted   men,  and  got   additional   troops   from    the   other 
provinces. 

For  a  time  these  preparations  seemed  needless ;  and  distance  from 
the  seat  of  war  and  Glen's  treaties  appeared  sufficient  to  save  the 
province.  But  at  last  this  good  fortune  terminated.  The  Cherokees, 
in  accordance  with  their  treaties,  had  followed  Forbes  in  his  expedi 
tion  to  Fort  Du  Quesne.  On  their  return,  they  became  involved  in  a 
quarrel  with  the  backwoods  settlers  of  Virginia  and  of  the  Carolinas, 
whose  horses  they  stole,  and  several  men  were  killed  on  both  sides. 
Their  chiefs,  however,  desired  peace,  but  were  roughly  treated  by  Lyt 
telton,  who  marched  against  them ;  and,  having  thoroughly  exas 
perated  them,  and  made  a  worthless  peace,  returned  to  Charles 
ton  with  his  army  broken  by  disease.  The  Cherokees,  maddened 


170  HISTORY  OF  THE 

by  this  treatment,  and  by  the  murder  of  some  hostages,  and  insti 
gated  by  French  emissaries,  began  a  general  war,  ravaged  the  fron 
tier,  and  threw  the  whole  province  into  a  state  of  terror.  At  this 
juncture  Lyttelton,  promoted  to  the  governorship  of  Jamaica,  de 
parted;  and  the  government  devolved  on  his  lieutenant,  William  Bull, 
a  son  of  the  former  Governor  of  that  name,  who  was  a  man  of  po 
sition,  talent,  and  education,  and  who  continued,  except  during  the 
brief  administrations  of  Thomas  Boone,  Lord  Charles  Montague,  and 
Lord  William  Campbell,  at  the  head  of  affairs  until  the  Revolution. 

The  provincial  levies  were  at  once  united  with  some  royal  troops 
sent  by  Amherst,  and  a  bloody  but  indecisive  campaign  followed. 
Soon  after  the  royal  troops  were  withdrawn  to  the  North,  and  the 
province  was  again  left  to  face  the  scourge  of  Indian  warfare  alone. 
The  Cherokees  succeeded  in  capturing  one  of  the  forts,  and  butch 
ered  most  of  the  prisoners.  This  led  to  renewed  application  for 
troops,  which  were  sent  under  Colonel  Grant,  who,  aided  by  fresh  pro 
vincial  levies,  devastated  the  Indian  country,  and  succeeded  at  last 
in  bringing  them  to  terms.  The  war  was  an  unnecessary  and 
injurious  one,  resulting  in  great  loss  of  life  and  property,  and 
might  have  been  avoided  by  a  more  moderate  conduct  on  the  part  of 
Lyttelton.  Although  peace  was  made,  the  friendship  of  the  Chero 
kees  was  lost,  and  the  smouldering  embers  blazed  forth  again  when 
revolution  came. 

Relieved  from  the  stress  of  war,  South  Carolina,  one  of  the  richest 
of  the  colonies,  through  her  staples  of  rice  and  indigo,  made  rapid 
strides.     Her  agriculture  and  trade  alike  increased,  while  immigration 
was  strenuously  encouraged,  and  new  settlements  were  pushed  rapidly 
to  the  westward.     Among  these  settlers  in  the  back  country  were 
many  loose  characters,  who  harassed  the  farmers  and  planters  by  horse- 
stealing  and  other  depredations.    All  the  courts  sat  in  Charleston,  and 
the  local  justices  were  either  inefficient  or  in  league  with  the  thieves. 
This  state  of  affairs  led  the  most  respectable  of  the  inhabitants  to 
form  associations  known  as  Regulators,  who  took  the  law  into 
their  own  hands,  and  a  good  deal  of  rough-and-ready  justice, 
and  much  complaint,  were  the  results.    To  settle  matters,  Lord  Charles 
Montague,  then  acting  Governor,  sent  one  Scovil  out  to  deal 
with  the  difficulties.    Scovil  undertook  to  treat  the  Regulators 
as  rioters,  and  arrested  two  of  them,  whom  he  sent  to  Charleston. 
This  injudicious  course  came  very  near  causing  civil  war,  and  both 
parties  were  ready  to  appeal  to  arms.     They  fortunately  refrained, 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  171 

however,  and  the  establishment  of  district  or  circuit  courts  by  the 
Assembly  gave  the  Regulators  an  opportunity,  of  which  they 
availed  themselves,  to  bring  criminals  to  justice  in  the  ordi 
nary  way.     The  controversy,  however,  engendered  much  bitterness  of 
feeling,  which  found  vent  during  the  Revolution,  when  the  Regulators 
espoused  the  patriotic  side,  and  the  former  followers  of  Scovil  became 
Tories. 

With  this  exception,  peace  reigned  in  South  Carolina  after  the 
French  war.  The  colony  was  more  closely  connected  by  her  trade 
with  the  mother  country  than  many  of  the  others,  and  the  general 
spirit  was  one  of  loyalty  to  the  Crown  and  attachment  to  the  consti 
tution.  But  as  their  whole  history  shows,  the  people  of  South  Caro 
lina  were  extremly  jealous  of  any  interference  with  their  affairs,  of 
any  manifestation  of  external  power,  and  of  anything  like  oppression. 
They  had,  moreover,  the  usual  grievances  arising  from  the  laws  of 
trade  and  the  restrictions  on  industry.  The  plan  of  taxing  Ameri 
ca,  therefore,  excited  great  alarm  among  them,  and  the  Stamp  Act 
aroused  deep  hostility,  especially  among  the  Regulators  of  the  back 
country  then  engaged  in  a  sharp  conflict  with  the  government.  The 
deep  feeling  awakened  by  the  new  policy  soon  found  expression. 
The  Assembly  was  in  session  when  the  Massachusetts  Circular  ar 
rived,  and  after  a  prolonged  debate  responded  to  the  call.  Two  of 
the  future  leaders  of  the  Revolution  appeared  at  New  York 
in  the  Stamp  Act  Congress — Christopher  Gadsden  and  John 
Rutledge.  The  prompt  action  of  the  Assembly  was  a  decisive  meas 
ure  in  bringing  about  that  Congress,  and  in  founding  the  union  of 
States,  of  which  South  Carolina  then  became  a  part 


172  HISTORY  OF  THE 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

SOUTH  CAROLINA  IN  1765. 

IN  South  Carolina  we  pass  beyond  the  last  traces  of  northern  influ 
ence,  and  the  Virginian  type  of  manners  and  society  becomes  wholly 
southern,  while  all  the  essential  peculiarities  of  the  Virginian  group 
of  colonies  are  intensified,  and  are  here  not  only  predominant  but 
reign  alone. 

The  general  configuration  of  the  province  did  not  differ  greatly  from 
that  of  North  Carolina.  The  coast  was  low  and  sandy,  and  the  land 
near  the  sea  of  inferior  quality,  while  the  interior  was  covered  with  vast 
forests  intersected  with  many  fine  rivers,  and  broken  by  swamps  and 
savannas.  The  low  lands  along  the  river  bottoms  were  extremely  rich, 
and  the  soil  of  the  whole  province,  except  for  the  stretches  of  pine 
barrens,  was  of  good  quality,  and  improved  steadily  as  it  rose  with  a 
gradual  ascent  from  the  sea-coast  to  the  mountains  on  the  western 
frontier.  The  climate,  although  very  variable,  and  exhibiting  great  ex 
tremes  of  heat  and  cold,  was  distinctly  tropical  in  character,  usually 
intensely  warm,  and  marked  by  violent  thunder-storms  and  wild  hur 
ricanes.1 

The  population,  consisting  of  a  few  thousands  at  the  beginning  of 
the  century,  had  risen  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution  to  between  one 
hundred  and  fifty  and  two  hundred  thousand.  The  increase  was 
largely  due  to  the  constant  importations  of  African  slaves  at  the  rate 
of  three  thousand  yearly^  so  that  the  blacks  were  to  the  whites  in  the 
proportion  of  two  or  three  to  one — a  circumstance  which  had  a  deep 
effect  upon  the  social  condition  as  well  as  the  political  future  of  the 
colony.a 

1  For  contemporary  accounts  of  soil,  climate,  etc.,  see  Smyth's  Tour,  i.,  202 ;  ii., 
70,73,74;  and  Glen's  Answers  to  the  Lords  of  Trade,  1749,  in  Doc.  relating  to 
South  Carolina,  Weston,  pp.  69,  71,  79. 

a  The  estimates  of  population  in  South  Carolina  vary  greatly,  and  the  statement 
given  above  is  the  result  of  a  careful  comparison  of  the  different  and  differing  au- 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  173 

The  dominant  element  among  the  whites  was  English ;  but  it  was 
neither  so  strong  nor  so  numerous  as  in  the  other  colonies,  and  the  for 
eign  elements  were  not  only  many  and  varied,  but  one  or  two  of  them 
almost  equalled  the  English  in  power,  and  contributed  many  of  the 
political  and  social  leaders.  In  the  early  days,  writes  Governor  Arch- 
dale,  "  many  dissenters  went  over,  men  of  estates,  as  also  many  whom 
the  variety  of  fortune  had  engaged  to  seek  their  fortunes  in  the  New 
World.  *  *  *  The  most  desperate  fortunes  first  ventured  over  to 
break  the  ice,  being  generally  the  ill-livers  of  the  pretended  Church 
men."1  The  wretched  government  of  the  charter  checked  immigra 
tion,  which  revived  under  Archdale,  and  brought  people  from  New 
England  and  Scotland,  and  dissenters  from  all  parts  of  the  English 
dominions.2  At  a  very  early  period  an  inconsiderable  number  of 
Dutch  settlers  came  from  New  York,  and  a  few  years  later  the  immi 
gration  of  French  Protestants  began,  which  increased  after  the  revo 
cation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  in  the  year  1685,  to  large  proportions. 
This  Huguenot  element  was  larger  in  South  Carolina  than  elsewhere, 
and  by  their  standing  and  success  attracted  many  of  their  brethren 
from  the  northern  colonies.  They  formed  an  excellent  and  influential 
part  of  the  population,  were  wealthy,  and  of  high  social  position,  and 
their  descendants  were  conspicuous  in  the  history  of  the  State.3  In 
the  year  1696  a  congregation  came  from  Dorchester,  Massachusetts, 
under  the  leadership  of  the  Rev.  Joseph  Lord ;  and  there  was  always 
more  or  less  emigration  from  Virginia,  Pennsylvania,  and  North  Car 
olina,  which  strengthened  and  improved  the  colony.  The  policy  of 
religious  toleration,  finally  adopted,  offered  strong  inducements  for 
settlement  to  dissenters  of  all  nations,  and  there  was,  in  consequence, 
a  large  German  immigration,  principally  composed  of  Palatines,  which 
continued  until  it  was  stopped  by  Frederick  the  Great.  These  Ger 
mans  were  thrifty  and  industrious,  and  a  good  population,  although 
they  clung  for  a  long  time  to  their  own  speech,  and  although  among 
the  Palatines  there  was  much  ignorance  and  superstition.  After  the 

thorities.  The  fullest  data  are  given  in  Mills's  Statistics  of  South  Carolina,  p.  173, 
and  if.  Other  estimates  may  be  found  in  Smyth,  i.,  207 ;  The  Case  of  the  Dissent 
ers  in  South  Carolina,  1703 ;  Glen's  Report  to  the  Lords  of  Trade,  Hist.  Coll., 
Weston ;  Glen's  Description  of  South  Carolina ;  Milligan's  Account  of  South  Car 
olina,  in  Carroll's  Hist.  Coll.,  ii.,  24 ;  Purry's  Account  of  South  Carolina,  in  Carroll's 
Hist.  Coll.,  ii.,  128 ;  Von  Reek's  Journal,  and  Bolzius. 

1  Archdale's  Description  of  South  Carolina,  Carroll,  ii.,  100.  8  Ibid. 

3  Letter  from  South  Carolina,  p.  41,  in  Bishop  Kennett's  Tracts. 


174  HISTORY  OF  THE 

risings  of  1715  and  1745,  bodies  of  Highlanders  came  out  and  settled 
in  the  back  districts,  chiefly  as  small  farmers  and  Indian  traders.  The 
largest  and  most  steady  immigration,  however,  came  from  the  north 
of  Ireland.  These  English  or  Scotch-Irish,  with  English  names,  and 
of  the  Presbyterian  sect,  were,  like  the  Huguenots,  a  strong  and  flour 
ishing  element  in  the  community.  They  founded  some  of  the  most 
important  families,  and  produced  some  of  the  most  brilliant  leaders  of 
South  Carolina.1 

From  this  brief  enumeration  of  the  varied  sources  from  which  the 
population  of  South  Carolina  was  drawn,  it  may  be  readily  inferred 
that  the  great  majority  of  her  people  dissented  in  religious  belief 
from  the  Church  of  England.  The  establishment  of  the  English 
Church,  therefore,  and  the  general  religious  policy  and  condition  of 
religion,  form  a  most  curious  chapter  in  the  history  of  the  province. 

The  charter  of  1669,  providing  for  the  support  of  the  English 
Church  by  the  govenment,  also  guaranteed  to  the  colonists  religious 
toleration.  More  settlers  were  attracted  by  the  latter  clause  than 
the  former;  and  political  power  remained  with  the  dissenters.  No 
clergy  of  the  English  Church  came  to  the  colony  for  many  years 
after  its  foundation;  and  it  was  not  until  1681  that  an  Episcopal 
church  was  built  in  Charleston  by  private  benevolence.3  Jealousy  of 
the  growth  and  prosperity  of  the  Huguenot  population  induced  an 
intolerance  toward  them,  and  a  restraint  of  their  freedom,  which  led 
to  complaints  on  their  part,  and  thence,  in  1697,  to  an  act  securing 
liberty  of  worship  to  all  Protestant  sects,3  while  in  the  following  year 
a  grant  was  made  by  the  Assembly  for  the  maintenance  of  the  single 
Episcopal  church,  the  ruling  dissenters,  under  the  lead  of  Governor 
Blake,  cheerfully  giving  their  support  to  the  act.4  This  policy  of  a 
true  and  broad  toleration  met  with  general  acquiescence,  but  it  was 
of  short  duration.  The  question  of  religion  became  involved  in  the 
bitter,  turbulent,  and  factious  political  struggles  of  the  time.  Al 
though  two-thirds  of  the  people,  and  those  the  richest  and  most  com 
mercial,  were  dissenters,  a  small  and  corrupt  set  of  officials,  sustained 
by  a  faction  of  High-Churchmen,  succeeded  by  means  of  high-handed 
measures,  and  by  frauds  and  riots  at  the  elections,  in  securing  to  them- 

1  In  regard  to  the  elements  of  population  in  South  Carolina,  see  Doc.  relating 
to  South  Carolina,  Weston,  Glen's  Report,  p.  82, 166;  Mills's  Statistics,  p.  173,  and 
ff. ;  O'Neall's  Annals  of  Newbury,  pp.  27,  32. 

8  Anderson's  Hist,  of  Colonial  Church,  ii.,  328,  461.  3  Ibid.,  465. 

4  Case  of  the  Dissenters  in  Carolina,  p.  11 ;  Mills,  p.  216. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  175 

selves  control  of  the  government.  They  at  once  used  their  power  to 
effect  the  political  ruin  of  the  dissenters;  and  in  the  year  1704  passed 
acts  for  the  organization  of  the  Church,  vesting  the  governing  power 
in  the  hands  of  a  lay  commission,  for  the  exclusion  or  disfranchise- 
ment  of  dissenters,  and  against  occasional  conformity.  This  policy 
pleased  no  one.  The  members  of  the  Church  disliked  the  lay  com 
mission  ;  the  dissenters  were,  of  course,  outraged  beyond  endurance, 
and  opposition  also  found  vent  among  the  London  merchants,  who  saw 
their  trade  deeply  injured  by  this  intolerance.  The  dissenters  at  once 
sent  an  agent  to  England,  who  laid  the  case  before  Parliament.  The 
House  of  Lords  passed  resolutions  condemning  all  the  acts,  the  Queen, 
on  address,  declared  them  null  and  void,  and  in  1706  they  were  re 
pealed  by  the  Assembly.1 

Even  during  this  brief  period  of  absolute  rule  the  dominant  spirit 
in  religions  matters  seems  to  have  been  of  a  Puritanic  cast.  A  strong 
law  was  passed  against  blasphemy ;  and  any  one  denying  the  Trinity, 
the  truth  of  religion,  or  the  Scriptures,  was  disfranchised  for  the  first 
offence,  and  outlawed  for  the  second.2  The  Sunday  laws  of  a  later 
time  partook  of  the  same  character,  and  showed  at  the  same  time  the 
real  weakness  of  the  Church  party.  Attendance  upon  some  church 
was  required  under  a  penalty ;  trade,  work,  and  sports,  as  well  as 
drunkenness,  were  prohibited  on  the  Sabbath ;  innkeepers  were  for 
bidden  to  entertain  any  but  genuine  travellers,  and  no  writ  or  process 
could  be  legally  served.8 

The  obnoxious  legislation  of  1704  did  not  strengthen  the  Estab 
lished  Church,  which  had  for  many  years  but  a  feeble  growth.  It 
retained,  however,  its  organization  and  unquestioned  recognition  as 
the  State  Church,  and  its  ascendency  was  maintained  for  the  next 
seventy  years.  The  province  was  divided  politically  into  parishes, 
and  in  each  there  was  nominally  at  least  a  vestry  and  church-wardens 
to  whom  certain  functions  of  local  government  were  assigned.  They 
had  charge  of  the  poor,  assessed  and  collected  the  poor  rates,  and 
also  superintended  the  elections.4  All  the  clergy,  dissenting  and  con 
forming,  were  elected  by  the  people,  and  were  men  of  excellent  char 
acter.  The  latter  were  paid  by  the  Assembly  by  funds  raised  from 
the  custom  duties,  and  were  sent  out  by  the  society  for  the  propa- 

1  Party  Tyranny  in  South  Carolina,  1705 ;  Case  of  the  Dissenters  of  Carolina, 
1704;  Mills,  p.  216;  Grimke,Laws  of  South  Carolina,  1703 ;  Archdale's  Descrip 
tion  of  South  Carolina,  Carroll,  ii.,  117 ;  Anderson,  iii.,  478. 

2  Grimke,  l703-'4.  •     3  Ibid.,  1712.  4  Ibid.,  1712, 1721, 1722. 


176  HISTORY  OF  THE 

gation  of  the  Gospel.  They  were  hard-working  men,  who  taught 
schools,  and  labored  also  among  the  negroes ;  and  the  respect  they  in 
spired  is  shown  by  the  funds  bequeathed  to  them  by  benevolent  per 
sons  for  educational  and  religious  purposes.  A  general  spirit  of  tol 
eration  prevailed  after  the  early  conflicts,  and  its  good  effects  were 
seen  in  the  spread  of  religion,  and  in  the  high  character  of  the  min 
istry. 

In  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  Governor  Glen  estimated 
the  members  of  the  Established  Church  as  forming  nearly  one-half 
the  population  ;  but  this  is  probably  an  official  exaggeration,  and  there 
can  be  little  question  that  the  dissenting  sects  were  much  the  most 
numerous.  In  Charleston  the  Established  Church  had  two  handsome 
brick  churches,  while  there  were  six  meeting-houses  of  dissenting  sects, 
besides  an  assembly  of  Quakers  and  another  of  Jews.  In  the  year 
1749  the  ministers  were  paid  by  the  Assembly,  but  there  were  six 
teen  parishes,  and  these  notoriously  incomplete.  The  State  Church 
was,  in  fact,  but  a  small  sect,  controlling  probably  not  a  fifth  of  the 
population.  The  largest  dissenting  sect  was  the  Presbyterian,  sup 
ported  by  the  Scotch-Irish  immigration.  The  Quakers,  who  played 
an  important  part  at  the  beginning,  gradually  dwindled,  and  finally 
became  extinct,  owing  to  their  disowning  slave-holders,  and  to  their  cour 
ageous  opposition  to  slavery.  The  clergy  of  the  Established  Church, 
differing  widely  from  those  of  Virginia  and  Maryland  in  their  zeal, 
character,  and  steady  work,  were  no  less  distinct  in  their  politics.  Not 
one-quarter  of  the  Virginian  or  Maryland  ministers,  who  were  almost 
all  bitter  Tories,  espoused  the  patriot  side ;  while  in  South  Carolina 
the  case  was  exactly  reversed,  and  her  excellent  ministers,  as  a  rule, 
sided  with  the  opposition  to  England.  They  thus  retained  their  hold 
upon  the  affections  of  the  people,  and  preserved  their  organization 
through  the  Revolution.  The  clergy  of  all  sects  in  South  Carolina 
formed  the  principal,  if  not  the  only,  learned  class ;  their  position  in 
society  was  respectable;  and  they  confined  themselves  to  their  pro 
fessional  duties,  leaving  to  laymen  the  conduct  of  pleasure  and  busi 
ness.1 

The  early  government  was  under  the  charter  of  Charles  II.,  and 
nominally,  at  least,  in  conformity  with  the  famous  constitutions  drawn 

1  For  this  account  of  Church  and  sects  in  South  Carolina,  see  Doc.  relating  to 
South  Carolina,  Weston,  Glen's  Report,  pp.  80, 178 ;  De  Brahm,  ibid.,  p.  178 ;  Mills, 
p.  216 ;  Glen's  Description,  p.  78 ;  Missionaries  sent  to  Carolina,  Humphreys,  in 
Carroll,  ii. ;  O'Neall,  Annals  of  Newbury,  p.  32. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  177 

by  Shaftesbury.  The  rule  of  the  proprietaries  was  generally  bad  and 
unpopular,  and  at  one  time  it  was  found  necessary  to  pass  a  law  to  pun 
ish  any  one  speaking  against  the  lords  proprietary  ;*  but  the  bad  gov 
ernment  went  on,  the  people  became  more  and  more  discontented, 
and  remonstrated  more  and  more  frequently.2  At  last  the  colony 
was  turned  over  to  the  King,  and  the  government  assumed  the  form 
usual  in  the  Crown  provinces.  It  consisted  of  a  Governor  and  Coun 
cil  of  twelve,  constituting  the  Upper  House,  appointed  by  the  King, 
and  an  Assembly,  chosen  by  the  people.  The  Governor  was  much 
less  powerful  than  was  commonly  the  case ;  and  although  Glen,  who 
held  the  office,  wished  for  more  power,  he  felt  obliged  to  confess  that 
on  general  grounds  it  was  very  well  as  it  was.  The  Governor,  of 
course,  represented  the  Crown,  and  could  convoke,  prorogue,  and  dis 
solve  the  Assembly.  He  also  had  the  power  of  reprieve,  until  instruc 
tions  could  be  received  in  the  case  from  England.  His  weakness  was 
due  to  his  slender  patronage,  which  extended  only  to  justices  of  the 
peace  and  officers  of  the  militia.  The  important  offices  were  granted 
by  the  Crown,  and  included,  besides  the  Council,  the  judiciary,  the 
secretary  of  the  province,  the  attorney,  and  the  surveyor-general,  and 
some  lesser  but  more  lucrative  offices,  such  as  the  provost  marshal 
and  clerk  of  the  Crown  and  Pleas — sinecures  held  at  one  time  by  the 
dramatist,  Richard  Cumberland,  who  made  various  attempts  to  capi 
talize  them  by  sale  to  the  Assembly. 

The  Assembly  was  chosen  by  the  freeholders  voting  by  ballot,  and 
the  members  were  required  to  own  five  hundred  acres  of  land  and  ten 
slaves,  or  be  worth  one  thousand  pounds  in  land,  houses,  and  other 
property.  They  represented  the  parishes  in  theory  according  to  a 
proportional  sy;tem,  but  the  parishes  were  very  unequally  divided; 
some  towns  which  were  entitled  to  representation  had  none ;  and  the 
Charleston  precinct  returned  a  majority  of  the  delegates,  and  absorb 
ed  the  lion's  share  of  the  political  power.  The  Assembly  held  the 
purse-strings,  and  possessed  the  patronage  of  all  the  financial  offices, 
such  as  the  public  treasurer,  the  county  controllers,  the  powder  re 
ceiver,  and  Indian  commissioner.3 

Revenue  was  raised  chiefly  from  general  duties  on  everything  but 
the  manufactures  of  Great  Britain,  and  from  exported  deer -skins. 

1  Grimke,  1691.  2  Party  Tyranny  in  Carolina,  1705. 

3  In  regard  to  organization  of  government,  see  Doc.  relating  to  South  Carolina ; 
Glen's  Report,  pp.  80, 105, 127 ;  Grimke,  1721;  Milligan's  Account,  1763,  Carroll, 
ii.,465. 

12 


178  HISTORY  OF  THE 

There  was  also  a  direct  tax  on  realty  and  personalty.  The  quit-rents, 
when  they  could  be  collected,  were  paid  to  the  Crown,  to  which  the 
duties  on  imported  negroes  and  liquors  were  likewise  granted  by  the 
Assembly.  The  salaries  and  ordinary  expenses  of  government  absorb 
ed  the  revenue ;  but  both  were  insignificant,  and  taxation  was,  as  a 
rule,  very  light  and  little  felt.1 

The  judiciary  was  arranged  in  a  rough  way  upon  the  English 
model,  but  without  any  attention  to  legal  acquirements  on  the  part  of 
the  judges.  There  was  a  court  of  chancery,  consisting  of  the  Govern 
or  and  Council,  and  an  admiralty  court,  appointed  by  the  Lords  Com 
missioners  of  Admiralty.  There  was  also  a  court  of  common  pleas, 
holding  quarter-sessions  in  the  districts,  and  sitting  once  a  year  as  a 
court  of  oyer  and  terminer.  The  judges  of  this  court  were  appointed 
by  the  Crown,  and  transacted  most  of  the  legal  business  of  the  col 
ony,  sitting  in  Charleston  exclusively  until  within  a  few  years  of 
the  Revolution.  There  were  also  small  county  or  justices'  courts, 
to  try  petty  causes,  and  attend  to  the  punishment  of  slaves  and  ser 
vants.  These  inferior  courts  meted  out  justice  in  a  very  rough  fash 
ion,  it  is  said,  especially  in  the  back  districts.  The  power  of  punish 
ment  for  contempt  appears  to  have  been  freely  exercised,  and  a  fine 
of  five  pounds  inflicted  upon  the  judge  and  county  attorney  for  a  per 
sonal  encounter  in  the  court-room  gives  a  curious  idea  of  the  back 
woods  administration  of  justice.3 

The  common  law  prevailed,  and  at  an  early  day  an  act  was  passed 
for  the  Habeas  Corpus,  and  certain  English  statutes,  beginning  with 
Magna  Charta,  were  declared  to  be  in  force  by  the  Assembly.  The 
criminal  laws  were  very  severe,  and  crime  was  on  the  increase,  owing 
chiefly,  in  all  probability,  to  the  savage  ignorance  of  the  negroes. 
Criminals  were  punished  in  the  simple  fashion  of  the  day — by  whip 
ping,  stocks,  and  pillory — and  any  form  of  restraint,  indeed,  was  prob 
ably  out  of  the  question,  if  we  may  judge  from  the  stories  of  the 
prisoners  breaking  out  of  the  court-room  and  fighting  in  the  yard.8 

There  was  much  litigation  ;  and  as  the  administration  of  justice  was 
centred  at  Charleston,  a  good  class  of  lawyers  began  to  grow  up  in 
the  years  preceding  the  Revolution,  and  the  profession  was  both  re- 


1  Glen's  Report,  p.  98  ;  Grimke,  1731 ;  Glen's  Description. 
9  Smyth,  i.,  206,207;  Glen's  Report,  p.  80;  De  Brahm,  p.  178;  Mills,  p.  192; 
Grimke,  1721, 1736  ;  O'Xeall,  Annals  of  Newbury,  p.  18. 
•  Grimke,  1712 ;  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  563,  565  ;  O'Neall,  p.  18. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  179 

spectable  and  promising,  although  still  numerically  small.1  Other  pro 
fessions  fared  less  well  than  those  of  law  and  divinity.  We  hear  of 
no  physicians,  and  the  practice  of  medicine  was  probably,  for  the  most 
part,  in  rude  and  unskilled  hands.  There  was  no  navy  and  no  regu 
lar  army ;  but,  owing  to  the  dread  of  negro  insurrection,  the  militia, 
numbering  eight  thousand,  were  efficient,  well-drilled,  and  well-armed.2 

The  occupations  of  the  great  body  of  the  inhabitants  were  agricult 
ural.  Almost  all  the  whites  were  planters  or  farmers.  The  country 
was  roughly  but  effectually  cleared  by  cutting  or  burning  the  trees, 
the  former  being  the  most  common  and  profitable,  as  the  lumber  was 
exported.  The  chief  product  was  rice,  introduced  about  the  year 
1694.  Its  cultivation  rapidly  increased,  owing  to  the  great  profits — 
one  slave  raising  more  than  his  own  value  in  a  year;  but  by  the 
middle  of  the  century  the  staple  was  over -planted,  the  zenith  of 
great  prosperity  had  passed,  and  low  prices  ruled.  The  loss  of  in 
come  thus  occasioned  was  made  good  at  the  time,  however,  by  the 
introduction  of  indigo,  which  soon  nearly  equalled  rice  in  value  and 
importance.  Corn  and  cotton  were  also  raised  in  large  quantities,  and 
cattle  multiplied  with  great  rapidity.  Many  planters  had  herds  of  two 
or  three  thousand  head,  which  ran  wild,  and  were  penned  and  counted 
yearly ;  and  owing  to  this  inexpensive  mode  of  grazing,  large  quan 
tities  of  beef  were  exported  with  great  profit  to  the  West  Indies.3 

The  prosperity  consequent  upon  these  productions  was  of  late  date. 
Under  the  rule  of  the  proprietaries,  not  only  the  evils  incident  to  a 
new  settlement — such  as  disease,  fires,  and  Indian  wars — had  to  be 
encountered,  but  the  wretched  and  corrupt  condition  of  the  govern 
ment,  and  the  violent  and  factious  divisions  of  party,  as  well  as  the 
pirates,  who  infested  the  coast,  ruined  trade,  and  were  connived  at 
by  government  officials,  retarded  all  progress.  Yet  even  then  those 
of  the  colonists  who  were  not  given  up  to  dissipation  rapidly  accu 
mulated  property.4  After  the  establishment  of  the  firm  and  well-or 
dered  royal  government,  rapid  growth  and  prosperity  ensued.  The 

1  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  563. 

2  De  Brahm,  Doc.  relating  to  South  Carolina,  Weston ;  Dr.  Milligan's  Account 
of  South  Carolina,  Carroll,  ii.,  465. 

3  Smyth,  ii.,  53,  70,  78,  79 ;  Doc.  relating  to  South  Carolina,  Glen's  Report ;  De 
Brahm,  ibid. ;  Mills,  p.  160;  Glen's  Description,  p.  95  ;  Stephens's  Journal,  ii.,  129. 

4  Purry's  Account  of  South  Carolina,  Carroll,  ii.,  128 ;  Proceedings  of  South 
Carolina  in  1719,  ibid.,  p.  146;  Mills,  p.  160;  Grimke,  1685,  1703;  Archdale's  De 
scription  of  Carolina,  Carroll,  ii. 


180  HISTORY  OF  THE 

pirates  were  broken  up,  and  the  rice  trade  began.  In  the  decade  from 
1730  to  1740  exports  and  imports  doubled;  and,  although  there  was 
some  falling  off  after  the  decline  in  rice  set  in,  they  amounted  at  the 
period  of  the  Revolution  to  six  or  seven  hundred  thousand  pounds  an 
nually,  and  employed  between  one  hundred  and  fifty  and  two  hundred 
vessels.  Much  of  this  was  due  to  the  better  system  of  trade  in  South 
'Carolina  than  in  the  other  members  of  the  southern  group.  Some  few 
planters  attempted  to  save  money  by  exporting  directly ;  but  the  great 
majority  sold  their  products  to  the  Charleston  merchants,  who  shipped 
them  to  England,  the  northern  colonies,  Europe,  and  the  West  Indies. 
This  made  trade  much  sounder  than  in  Virginia  and  Maryland,  but  did 
not  rid  South  Carolina  of  the  evils  of  depreciated  currency — dating 
back  to  Queen  Anne's  wars — or  of  the  total  lack  of  industries.  Not 
only  every  luxury  and  every  manufactured  article  was  brought  from 
England,  but  even  objects  of  prime  necessity  were  imported.  During 
a  large  part  of  the  colonial  period  the  province  was  dependent  on  New 
York  and  Philadelphia  for  flour  and  bacon.  Every  form  of  skilled 
labor  was  high-priced,  and  mechanics  were  in  great  demand ;  and  the 
carrying  trade  was  wholly  in  the  hands  of  British  and  New  England 
merchants.  There  were,  in  fact,  absolutely  no  industries  of  any  kind, 
except  those  of  agriculture  and  a  profitable  traffic  with  the  Indians, 
carried  on  by  the  Charleston  merchants,  who  transported  their  goods 
to  the  West  on  pack-horses.1  These  merchants,  who  did  so  much  for 
the  well-being  of  the  state,  were  generally  rich  men,  who  did  not  spec 
ulate,  but  bought  from  the  planters,  and  carried  on  a  strictly  legiti 
mate  trade.2  Yet  they  were  regarded  as  an  inferior  class  by  the 
planters,  who  formed  the  bulk  of  the  population,  and  absolutely  con 
trolled  the  state.3  There  were,  indeed,  but  two  classes  in  South  Car 
olina — the  planters  and  the  slaves — forming  as  pure  and  despotic  an 
aristocracy  as  could  well  be  imagined.  With  the  exception  of  the 
Scotch  Highlanders,  who  farmed  in  the  back  districts,  small  landhold 
ers  and  poor  whites  were  few  in  number,  and  the  indented  servants 
were  not  numerous. 

1  Smyth,  i.,  208 ;  it,  53,  66,  70,  84,  86 ;  Doc.  relating  to  South  Carolina,  Glen, 
pp.  71,  82, 190 ;  De  Brahm,  ibid. ;  Mills,  p.  160 ;  Grimke,  1721, 1746, 1759;  Glen's 
Description,  for  account  of  currency,  and  also,  p.  80,  for  labor ;  Purry's  Account, 
Carroll,  ii. ;  Proceedings  of  South  Carolina,  1719,  ibid.,  p.  146,  as  to  frauds  in 
currency  ;  also  Von  Reek's  Journal,  1733,  and  Bolzius. 

4  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  577 ;  Glen's  Description,  p.  78,  and  summary  of  occupations. 

3  Ibid.,  ii.,  175. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  181 

The  condition  of  this  last  class  did  not  diffev  essentially  from  that 
in  the  other  colonies.  They  were  generally  **  reaernptioners,"  who 
paid  their  passage  to  America  by  selling  themselves  into  service  for 
a  term  of  years.  Their  masters  were  at  liberty  to  whip  them  ;  they 
were  punished  with  additional  years  of  servitude  if  they  ran  away  ;  no 
one  could  trade  with  them  ;  and  their  travel  was  strictly  limited.  At 
the  expiration  of  this  degraded  servitude  they  received  a  certificate 
of  freedom,  and  were  soon  lost  among  the  poor  whites  and  small 
farmers.1 

Far  more  important  was  the  still  lower  class  of  African  slaves.  They 
greatly  outnumbered  all  other  elements  of  population,  and  were  the 
foundation  and  support  of  the  whole  industrial  and  economical  sys 
tem.  They  numbered  more  than  one  hundred  thousand,  of  whom 
about  eighty  per  cent,  were  employed  on  plantations,  and  the  remain 
der  as  house  servants,  and  in  various  menial  capacities.  They  per 
formed  all  the  hard  work  of  the  colony.  They  cost  about  forty  pounds 
each ;  and  as  they  produced  in  one  year  more  rice  or  indigo  than  suf 
ficed  to  pay  their  entire  value,  the  profit  upon  them  was  very  large, 
and  the  temptation  to  get  all  the  work  possible  out  of  them  very  great. 
The  culture  of  both  rice  and  indigo  was  sickly,  and  this,  joined  to  un 
remitting  toil,  wore  them  down  rapidly,  so  that  they  became  prema 
turely  old  and  shrivelled,  presenting  a  marked  contrast  to  the  slaves 
of  Virginia.  The  slave  legislation  of  South  Carolina  resembles,  in  a 
general  way,  that  of  the  northern  colonies ;  but  a  close  examination 
reveals  some  very  characteristic  differences.  Mixture  of  races  was 
prevented,  and  the  taint  of  black  blood  rendered  hopeless  by  laws 
making  all  negro,  mulatto,  or  mestizo  children  follow  the  condition 
of  the  mother,  unless  freed  before  the  court.  Slaves  could  be  bap 
tized,  were  not  to  be  beaten  without  cause,  and  excessive  punishments 
were  prohibited,  and  the  hours  of  labor  fixed — limitations  which  show 
very  forcibly  the  habits  of  the  masters.  No  slave  could  be  absent 
from  his  plantation  without  a  ticket,  and  any  white  person  was  au 
thorized  to  stop  a  slave,  examine  and  beat  him,  and,  if  he  resisted, 
could  lawfully  kill  him.  All  persons  were  empowered  to  disperse 
meetings  of  blacks,  and  those  hurt  in  the  common  cause — the  pursuit 
of  fugitive  slaves — were  to  be  rewarded  at  public  expense.  A  justice 
and  two  freeholders  could  try  a  slave  for  any  offence,  and,  against 
slaves  and  free  negroes,  the  evidence  of  other  slaves  and  of  Indians  was 

1  Grimke,  1744. 


182  HISTORY  OF  THE 

admissible.  Heavy  penalties  were  exacted  from  them  for  all  crimes, 
and  especially  for  conspiracy.  They  could  neither  buy,  nor  sell,  nor 
hire  horses,  nor  travel  in  companies  of  more  than  seven,  and  were 
forbidden  to  learn  to  write.  The  wilful  murder  of  a  slave  was  expiated 
by  a  fine  of  seven  hundred  pounds,  and  manslaughter  by  one  of  three 
hundred  and  fifty.  Those  who  harbored  fugitives  were  heavily  fined; 
while  enticing  a  slave  away  was,  until  a  late  period  of  the  colony, 
punished  by  death,  which  remained  the  penalty  for  stealing  them. 
No  planter  was  allowed  to  leave  his  plantation  except  in  charge  of  a 
white,  and  the  law  required  that  slaves  should  never  be  left  alone. 
All  whites  were  obliged  to  go  armed  to  church,  and  patrols  from  the 
militia  were  constantly  on  duty  to  search  for  arms,  and  give  all  stray 
negroes  whom  they  met  twenty  lashes.1  This  legislation  shows  in 
every  line  the  atmosphere  of  terror  in  which  the  planters  lived,  and 
there  is  a  careful  ferocity  and  well-planned  barbarity  which  is  wholly 
wanting  to  the  northward.  But  the  grounds  for  this  fear-inspired 
code  were  only  too  real.  The  negroes  were  hopelessly  degraded. 
They  were  rarely  baptized  or  married,  but  lived,  like  animals,  in  a 
state  of  promiscuous  intercourse.  After  six  days  of  incessant  labor 
for  their  masters,  they  were  permitted  on  the  seventh  to  work  for 
themselves.  Their  condition,  therefore,  was  one  of  almost  complete 
barbarism,  and  they  retained  some  of  the  savage  bravery  and  inde 
pendence  which  a  kinder  dispensation  had  almost  obliterated  in  their 
Virginian  brethren.  The  planters  were  always  haunted  by  the  dread 
of  a  West  Indian  rising  and  massacre.  Combinations  and  conspiracies 
were  constant  sources  of  anxiety.  It  was  believed  that  the  slaves 
were  ever  ready  to  run  away  and  form  frontier  communities,  which 
would  menace  the  safety  of  the  province,  and  it  is  certain  that  the 
negroes  were  dangerous,  discontented,  hated  the  whites,  and  were 
always  ripe  for  revolt.  Insurrections,  involving  more  or  less  blood 
shed,  did,  in  fact,  break  out  during  the  eighteenth  century.2  In  South 
Carolina,  too,  there  was  none  of  the  distinction  between  theory  and 
practice  which  prevailed  elsewhere.  The  slaves  were  harshly  and 
cruelly  treated,  and  grievously  overworked.  A  clergyman  who  vent 
ured  to  preach  in  regard  to  the  savage  treatment  of  the  slaves  was 

1  Grimke,  1712, 1740, 1743, 1746, 1751, 1754.  There  is  a  summary  of  this  legis 
lation  in  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  664. 

3  As  to  slavery  in  South  Carolina,  see  Smyth,  i.,  205 ;  ii.,  68, 70 ;  Doc.  relating 
to  South  Carolina,  Glen's  Report;  De  Brahra,  ibid. ;  Milligan,  Carroll,  ii.,  465 ;  Vou 
Reek's  Journal ;  Bolzius's  Journal ;  Stephens's  Journal,  i.,  399 ;  ii.,  129. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  183 

sharply  reproved  by  his  congregation.  "  Sir,"  they  said,  "  we  pay 
you  a  genteel  salary  to  read  to  us  the  prayers  of  the  liturgy,  and  to 
explain  to  us  such  parts  of  the  Gospel  as  the  rule  of  the  Church  di 
rects;  but  we  do  not  want  you  to  teach  us  what  to  do  with  our 
blacks."  The  unlucky  pastor  was  completely  silenced.1  A  traveller 
records  the  spectacle  of  a  negro  exposed  alive  in  a  cage  to  die  of  hun 
ger  and  thirst.  The  miserable  wretch  was  torn  by  birds,  and  his  eyes 
had  been  picked  out.  His  crime  was  the  murder  of  an  overseer,  and 
the  argument  in  favor  of  this  ghastly  punishment  was  the  defence  of 
society.9  Such  extreme  barbarity  was  probably  not  common,  but  it 
vividly  illustrates  the  state  of  a  society  which  required  such  a  defence. 

The  planters  who  lived  in  the  midst  of  such  a  slavery,  and  sustain 
ed  it,  were  not  only  an  overwhelming  majority  among  the  whites,  but 
practically  owned  and  governed  the  province.  Approaching  them  as 
masters,  we  see  the  worst  side  of  South  Carolinian  society,  but  we 
also  clearly  appreciate  the  fact  that  it  was  an  aristocracy  of  the  most 
marked  kind.  Lords  and  slaves  formed  the  community.  The  former 
maintained  an  anxious  and  grinding  despotism,  and  were,  as  a  class, 
brave,  imperious,  hot-tempered,  and  too  often  fierce  and  cruel. 

The  plantations  were,  as  elsewhere,  scattered  through  the  forests 
and  along  the  banks  of  rivers ;  but  the  planters  did  not  live  on  their 
estates  unless  they  were  in  the  neighborhood  of  Charleston,  but  left 
them  in  charge  of  overseers.  They  all  had  houses  in  Charleston,  and 
there  the  whole  life  of  the  colony  —  social,  political,  legal,  and  com 
mercial — centred.  The  town  stood  low,  near  the  mouths  of  the  Coo 
per  and  Ashley  rivers,  and  contained,  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution, 
rather  more  than  fifteen  thousand  inhabitants.  The  streets  were  well 
laid  out,  although  unpaved  and  sandy ;  and  the  public  buildings  and 
churches  were  handsome  for  the  time,  with  some  architectural  preten 
sions.  The  houses  were  nearly  all  of  brick,  with  broad  verandas,  and 
contrived  always  with  a  view  to  mitigate  the  intense  heat.  Although 
the  population  seems  small  to  modern  notions  of  cities,  it  was  by  no 
means  so  insignificant  in  the  eighteenth  century ;  and  the  peculiar 
structure  of  society  made  the  wealthy  and  fashionable  classes  much 
more  numerous  proportionally  than  they  ever  would  be  in  a  northern 
or  in  an  English  town  of  the  same  size.  All  labor  was  performed  ex 
clusively  by  negroes,  who  formed  half  the  population ;  while  the  rest 
of  the  inhabitants,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  shopkeepers,  were 

1  Cr£vecceur,  p.  224.  2  Ibid.,  p.  234. 


184  HISTORY  OF  THE 

officials,  wealthy  planters  and  merchants,  or  the  best  professional  men 
in  the  colony.  The  centralization  thus  effected  was  something  quite 
uncommon  in  the  English  provinces.  Charleston  had  no  rivals — the 
other  towns  being  small — and  absorbed  and  drew  to  itself  every  inter 
est  of  the  province.1  In  the  immediate  vicinity  of  Charleston  the 
plantations  were  occupied  by  their  owners,  and  were  well  maintained. 
The  negro  huts,  of  course  clustered  about  the  house,  gave  the  usual 
village-like  look ;  but  there  were  handsome  gardens  and  fine  avenues, 
showing  the  effects  of  a  close  contact  with  society,  instead  of  the  Vir 
ginian  isolation.3  The  town  produced  the  same  effect  upon  facilities 
for  travel.  Although  the  roads  were  often  sandy  and  heavy,  they 
were  well  laid  out.  Causeways  were  built  over  marshes,  and  private 
roads  were  as  good  as  those  built  by  the  public.  This  was  true  only 
of  the  great  roads  leading  north  and  south,  and  of  those  near  Charles 
ton  and  the  sea-coast.  In  the  interior  travel  was  difficult,  and  the 
roads  little  more  than  woodland  paths.3 

Many  planters  lived  in  Charleston  all  the  year  round ;  and  all  of 
them,  as  well  as  many  invalids  from  the  West  Indies,  gathered  there 
in  summer,  for  the  relief  afforded  by  the  sea-breeze.4  This  constant 
social  contact  and  town  life  had  of  course  a  marked  effect.  The 
South  Carolinians  were  at  bottom  the  same  country  gentlemen  as 
those  of  Virginia;  but  they  were  more  polished,  more  men  of  the 
world,  and  more  refined  in  manners  and  habits  of  life.  There  was  all 
the  gayety  of  a  fashionable  watering-place  in  Charleston.  In  winter 
assemblies  were  held  every  fortnight,  with  "  a  brilliant  appearance  " 
of  well-dressed  women,  besides  frequent  dinners,  balls,  supper-parties, 
and  amateur  concerts.  There  was  also  "a  genteel  play-house,  and  a 
tolerable  set  of  actors."  In  summer  no  amusements  except  riding 
and  driving  were  possible ;  but  in  winter  there  were  field-sports  of 
every  description,  such  as  fox-hunting  and  horse-racing,  foot-ball,  bear 
and  bull  baiting,  and  entertainments  described  in  the  laws  as  "  inter 
ludes  and  common  plays."  Nothing  began  until  after  four  in  the  af 
ternoon  ;  and  besides  the  more  innocent  pleasures  just  described,  the 
gambling-houses  were  crowded,  and  high  play  prevailed.6 

1  For  contemporary  accounts  of  Charleston,  see  Michaux's  Travels,  p.  7  ;   Smyth, 
i.,  202 ;  ii.,  82 ;  Glen's  Answers,  in  Doc.  relating  to  South  Carolina ;  De  Brahm,  ibid., 
p.  178 ;  Milligan,  Carroll,  ii.,  465  ;  Von  Reek's  Journal ;  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  556. 

2  Memoirs  of  Elkanah  Watson. 

'  De  Brahm,  p.  178 ;  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  588.  4  Cre>ecceur,  p.  214. 

6  For  amusements,  see  Cr6vecoeur,  p.  214  ;  Grimke,  1712;  Milligan,  Carroll,  ii., 
465 ;  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  658. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  185 

The  men  led  a  rather  wild  and  dissipated  life,  and  drank  deeply — 
an  intemperance  which  in  that  climate  carried  them  off  very  early,  and 
their  mortality  was  so  marked,  that  the  women,  who  contented  them 
selves  with  the  brackish  water  of  the  coast,  always  married  two  or  three 
times.  These  fortunate  ladies  were  much  in  society,  but  modest,  at 
tractive,  and  accomplished.  Many  of  them  played  upon  the  harp,  and 
sang  well.  The  climate  caused  them  to  fade  early  ;  and  it  is  said  they 
looked  old  at  thirty.1  The  life  of  both  sexes  was  one  of  greater  lux 
ury  than  in  any  other  American  colony,  and  was  sensual,  self-indul 
gent,  and  indolent.  Women  never  walked,  and  men  but  rarely.  No 
family  had  less  than  twenty  slaves  as  house -servants,  and  extrava 
gance,  although  there  were  few  very  large  fortunes,  was  the  rule.  All 
had  handsome  equipages  and  horses,  and  kept  open  house.  They 
were  extremely  hospitable,  and  the  negroes  were  directed  in  the  coun 
try  to  ask  in  any  passing  stranger.  The  effect  of  slavery  and  of  the 
warm  climate  was  perceptible  in  the  slovenliness  which  showed  itself 
even  in  the  most  extensive  establishments ;  but  the  general  character 
istics  were  luxury  and  comfort.2 

In  the  back  country  life  was  much  ruder,  and  the  people  of  a  lower 
class ;  but  except  near  Cape  Fear,  where  the  inhabitants,  after  the 
North  Carolina  fashion,  avoided  taxes  and  quit-rents,  law  and  order 
prevailed,  although  the  planters  usually  ruled  with  a  high  hand. 
Thanks  to  the  absence  of  freed  servants  and  poor  whites,  there  was 
little  or  no  poverty.  All  who  were  not  rich  planters  were  small  and 
self-supporting  farmers  and  Indian  traders  or  hunters.8 

General  education  could  hardly  be  said  to  exist  even  after  the  Rev 
olution  ;  there  were  no  free  and  scarcely  any  paid  schools,  and  there 
was  no  college.  The  very  excellent  clergy  did  what  they  could  to 
remedy  the  prevailing  ignorance,  even  among  the  blacks,  and  both 
they  and  laymen  left  bequests  for  the  foundation  of  schools.  But  this 
general  illiteracy  did  not  obtain  among  the  numerous  and  powerful 
body  of  planters.*  The  sons  of  the  rich  were  all  educated  in  Europe, 

1  Smyth,  ii.,  54  ;  Creveeoeur,  p.  214 ;  Milligan,  Carroll,  ii.,  465  ;  Purry,  ibid.,  p.  178. 
a  Smyth,  ii.,  83  ;  Glen's  Answers,  p.  82 ;  Milligan,  Carroll,  ii.,  465  ;  Memoirs  of 
Elkanah  Watson  ;  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  555,  574,  591 ;  De  Brahm,  p.  178. 

3  Smyth,  i.,  205 ;  ii.,  80 ;  Glen's  Answers,  p.  67  ;   O'Neall,  Annals  of  Newbury, 
p.  18. 

4  Mills's  Statistics  of  South  Carolina,  p.  216  ;  Milligan,  Carroll,  ii.,  465  ;  O'Neall, 
generally,  and  especially,  pp.  86,  111,  249 ;  Anderson's  Hist.  Col.  Church,  iii.,  488 ; 
Rochefoucauld,  i.,  580. 


186  HISTORY  OF  THE 

and  in  Charleston,  besides  a  society  for  the  promotion  of  literature, 
there  was  also  a  library  society,  promoted  by  Governor  Bull,  which 
imported  many  valuable  books  and  gave  them  circulation ;  yet  despite 
these  societies  and  the  comparatively  high  education  of  the  upper 
classes,  there  was  no  native  literature  of  any  sort.  The  Rev.  Alex 
ander  Garden  produced  some  controversial  tracts  under  the  stimulus 
of  Whitefield,  and  a  few  sermons  found  their  way  into  print ;  but  this 
was  all.  Intellectual  development,  except  in  politics  and  trade,  did 
not  go  farther  in  South  Carolina  than  in  the  other  southern  colonies. 
In  all  connected  with  these  two  subjects  of  politics  and  commerce, 
there  was  no  lack  of  acuteness  and  experience,  nor  of  love  of  indepen 
dence.  The  utter  dependence  both  in  exports  and  imports  drew  South 
Carolina  closer  to  England  than  the  other  provinces,  and  the  result 
was  seen  in  the  active  existence  of  a  powerful  and  bitter  Tory  party 
when  the  Revolution  came.  But  the  strongest  and  best  among  the 
planters  adopted  the  patriot  cause,  and  carried  the  State  safely  through 
the  stress  of  war.  We  find  in  South  Carolina  that  the  northern  qual 
ities  perceptible  in  Virginia  have  wholly  disappeared,  while  all  the  south 
ern  elements  have  been  intensified.  Her  close  slave-holding  aristoc 
racy  produced  many  leaders  of  ability,  who  rendered  great  services  to 
the  cause  of  the  united  colonies,  and  afterward  gave  their  State  a  strong 
position  in  the  country,  and  a  place  second  only  to  that  of  Virginia  in 
the  southern  group. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  187 


CHAPTER  IX. 

GEORGIA  FROM  1732  TO  1765. 

THE  settlement  of  South  Carolina,  and  the  danger  to  which  the  in 
habitants  were  exposed  of  incursions  from  the  Spaniards  and  Indians, 
drew  early  attention  to  the  fertile  region  lying  between  the  Savannah 
River  and  the  boundaries  of  Florida.  Nothing,  however,  was  done  to 
occupy  this  territory  until  after  the  Carolinas  had  formally  passed  into 
the  possession  of  the  Crown,  and  that  portion  of  the  new  provinces 
which  afterward  became  Georgia  was  retained  by  the  King  when  the 
governments  of  the  Carolinas  were  settled. 

The  Atlantic  coast  of  the  United  States  was  from  the  time  of  its 
discovery  the  field  for  many  experiments.  Some  were  Utopias  de 
signed  for  the  regeneration  of  mankind,  which  never  got  farther  than 
the  paper  on  which  they  were  described,  while  others  failed  when  put 
to  the  hard  tests  of  life  in  a  new  country.  Even  the  colonies  actually 
founded  present  every  variety  of  origin  and  motive,  from  the  highest 
and  most  far-reaching  purposes  of  politics  and  religion  to  the  small 
beginnings  of  posts  for  the  better  prosecution  of  the  fur  trade.  Among 
all  these,  Georgia  was  the  only  one  to  owe  its  foundation  to  charity. 
The  benevolent  scheme,  out  of  which  a  state  was  finally  developed, 
would  be  dull  enough  historically,  were  it  not  for  one  or  two  of  the 
principal  personages  who  figured  in  the  history  of  the  youngest  of  the 
American  colonies. 

Among  those  who  led  the  English  race  into  the  wilds  of  North 
America,  and  who  there  won  noble  places  in  the  world's  records  as 
founders  of  states  and  of  a  nation,  were  many  strong  men  of  striking 
character  and  marked  ability.  In  this  goodly  company  there  is  hard 
ly  one  who  is  more  conspicuous  or  more  interesting  than  the  gallant 
soldier  who  founded  Georgia.  Some  of  them  may  have  been  actuated 
by  more  important  principles  of  politics  or  religion ;  but  there  is  not 
one  who  displayed  greater  devotion  to  duty  or  greater  unselfishness, 
or  to  whom  any  colony  from  its  inception  owed  more  than  Georgia 
did  to  James  Oglethorpe. 


188  HISTORY  OF  THE 

The  colonization  of  Georgia  is  naturally  the  achievement  by  which 
Oglethorpe  is  best  known,  and  upon  which  his  fame  rests ;  but  his  ca 
reer  was  in  every  way  a  remarkable  one.  His  active  life  covered  more 
than  three-quarters  of  a  century.  He  sprang  from  an  ancient  family, 
and  one  which  had  sacrificed  both  life  and  fortune  in  the  cause  of  the 
Stuarts.  By  inheritance  he  was  a  Jacobite,  and  was  always  a  high 
Tory ;  but  his  loyalty  to  the  reigning  house  was  unstained,  and  he 
proved  his  devotion  by  his  service  against  the  Pretender  in  "  forty- 
five."  Born  just  at  the  close  of  the  reign  of  James  II.,  Ogle 
thorpe  entered  the  army  at  an  early  age.  He  served  with  Marl- 
borough  in  the  Low  Countries,  was  with  Peterborough  in  his  Italian 
embassy,  and  then,  as  aide-de-camp  to  Prince  Eugene,  went  through 
all  the  battles  fought  by  that  commander  with  the  Turks,  and  was 
present  at  Petrawardin  and  the  siege  of  Belgrade.  His  long  life 
extending  to  1785,  during  which  his  powers  of  mind  and  body  re 
mained  unimpaired,  connects  him  with  every  period  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  An  officer  with  Marlborough  and  Eugene,  the  defender  of 
Atterbury,  and  immortalized  in  the  familiar  lines  of  Pope,  his  say 
ings  are  also  recorded  by  Boswell,  he  was  the  friend  of  Johnson,  was 
sneered  at  by  Wai  pole,  after  his  death,  for  not  living  longer,  and  is 
even  united  to  our  own  times  by  his  appearance  in  the  diary  of  Sam 
uel  Rogers,  to  whom  he  described  the  days  when  he  had  shot  snipe 
in  what  is  now  Conduit  Street  in  London.  Such  a  life  and  such  a 
career  deserve  a  better  relation  than  scanty  materials  have  permitted ; 
but  even  with  what  remains,  the  brave  soldier,  and  the  honest,  upright, 
kind-hearted  gentleman,  stands  out  clearly ;  and  in  the  early  history 
of  Georgia  there  is  an  abundance  of  information  which  exhibits  him 
not  only  as  a  soldier,  but  as  a  strong  leader  and  wise  administrator. 
That  Oglethorpe  made  mistakes  is  not  only  probable,  but  was  inevita 
ble  ;  for,  in  addition  to  all  that  may  be  set  down  to  human  fallibili 
ty  under  difficult  circumstances,  was  the  fact  that  he  did  his  work 
under  an  impracticable  system,  and  to  further  a  generous  but  proba 
bly  impossible  experiment.  Yet,  after  every  deduction  has  been  made, 
he  is  a  man  whom  any  state  might  regard  with  reverence  and  admi 
ration  as  its  founder,  first  ruler,  and  defender. 

After  his  return  from  campaigning  against  the  Turks  with  Prince 
Eugene,  Oglethorpe  was  chosen  to  Parliament.    He  was  a  use 
ful  and  active  member,  a  sensible  and  straightforward  speaker, 
and  was  especially  interested  in  what  would  now  be  called  domestic 
reform.     He  did  much  for  the  relief  of  abuses,  and  his  attention  was 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  189 

at  last  drawn  to  the  condition  of  the  debtors'  prisons.  He  obtained 
the  appointment  of  a  special  committee,  and  their  investiga 
tions  brought  to  light  a  state  of  affairs  which  was  simply  fright 
ful.  Prosecutions  and  legislation  followed ;  but  Oglethorpe,  not  sat 
isfied  with  this,  devised  a  scheme  for  settling  members  of  the  debtor 
class  in  America,  in  the  hope  of  giving  these  unfortunates  an  oppor 
tunity  to  redeem  their  past,  and  at  the  same  time  relieve  England 
from  the  burden  of  their  support.  An  association  was  formed,  with 
a  Board  of  Trustees,  to  serve  without  pay,  and  was  incorporated  for 
twenty-one  years  under  a  charter  giving  them  all  the  territory  be 
tween  the  Savannah  and  the  Altamaha.  Upon  these  Trustees  the 
power  was  conferred  to  raise  money  by  subscription,  govern  and  de 
fend  the  colony,  make  laws,  and  establish  courts.  The  liberties,  fran 
chises,  and  immunities  of  citizens  of  Great  Britain  were  guaranteed 
to  the  colonists,  as  well  as  liberty  of  conscience  to  all  except  Papists. 
The  promoters  of  this  benevolent  scheme  hoped  to  accomplish  much 
by  their  enterprise.  South  Carolina  was  to  be  protected  by  the  bar 
rier  of  new  settlements ;  the  improvident  debtor  was  to  be  convert 
ed  into  a  producing  and  profitable  subject;  other  oppressed  people 
were  to  be  invited  to  this  haven  of  rest  and  prosperity ;  independent 
settlers  were  to  come  over  and  form  a  class  of  large  landholders, 
and  bring  servants  with  them  ;  Christianity  was  to  be  spread  among 
the  Indians,  and  silk,  wine,  oil,  and  dyestuffs  were  to  be  produced, 
which  would  vastly  increase  the  wealth  and  aid  the  manufactures 
of  the  mother  country.  With  such  projects,  visionary  though  they 
were,  and  with  free  passage  and  a  gratuity  of  tools  and  lands,  the 
Trustees  had  no  lack  of  volunteers  from  whom  to  choose  colonists. 
Thirty-five  of  the  best  and  soberest  families  were  selected,  and  under 
the  charge  of  Oglethorpe,  who  had  been  made  Governor  and  General, 
with  full  powers  but  no  pay,  they  sailed  from  England  in  November, 

1732,  and  reached  Charleston  in  the  middle  of  the  following 
1733*    T 

January. 

The  emigrants  were  warmly  received  in  South  Carolina,  both  by 
government  and  people ;  and  Oglethorpe  at  once  made  a  journey  to 
the  south  and  selected  a  site  for  the  settlement.  There,  to  a  chosen 
spot,  a  bluff  overlooking  the  river,  Oglethorpe  brought  his  company 
and  founded  the  future  city  of  Savannah.  Under  his  energetic  guid 
ance  rapid  progress  was  made.  Houses  were  built,  supplies  and  mon 
ey  obtained,  treaties  made  with  the  Indians,  the  town  laid  out  in 
wards  and  tithings,  courts  established,  and  the  land  divided  into  lots. 


190  HISTO&Y  OF  THE 

Ample  provision  was  made  for  defence,  and  Fort  Argyle  was  built  on 
the  Ogeechee  as  an  outlying  post.  Fresh  colonists  arrived,  among 
them  Jews,  to  whom  the  Trustees  made  objection — the  first  indication 
of  their  narrow  views.  Money  was  voted  by  Parliament ;  and  in  the 
following  year  came  a  ship-load  of  the  oppressed  and  exiled  Salz- 
burgers,  who,  under  the  lead  of  Oglethorpe,  founded  another  town, 

to  which  they  gave  the  name  of  Ebenezer.     Everything  had 

prospered  with  the  new  colony,  and  in  May  Oglethorpe  re 
turned  to  England,  taking  with  him  the  Indian  chief,  Tomochichi. 
In  the  following  year  Oglethorpe  returned  at  the  head  of  what  is 

known  as  the  "grand  emigration."  The  news  of  the  success- 
1736*  ^  beginnings  of  the  colony  had  spread,  and  settlers  came  from 

among  the  Salzburgers  and  Moravians,  as  well  as  from  Eng 
land,  many  being  of  a  better  class  than  were  the  first  beneficiaries  of 
the  Trustees.  In  this  second  emigration,  also,  came  two  more  of  those 
marked  characters  which  have  given  a  peculiar  personal  interest  and 
animation  to  the  early  history  of  Georgia.  Charles  Wesley  came  out 
as  Oglethorpe's  secretary,  and  John  Wesley  as  missionary  to  the  In 
dians.  The  former  made  trouble  by  slandering  Oglethorpe,  and  by 
injudicious  and  factious  meddling,  while  the  latter  embroiled  the 
whole  settlement  by  a  love  affair  in  which  he  was  disappointed,  and 
by  his  zealous  religious  intolerance.  The  stay  of  the  brothers  in 
Georgia  was  brief,  however,  and  their  departure  was  a  relief  to  the 
colony  in  which  they  had  on]y  made  trouble.  Their  doings  and 
sayings,  and  their  contentions,  form  an  interesting  chapter  in  their 
biographies,  and  relieve  the  monotony  of  the  early  settlement;  but 
they  had  no  lasting  influence  or  effect,  and  their  sojourn  in  America 
was  to  them  and  to  Georgia  simply  an  episode,  neither  creditable  nor 
important.  John  Wesley  left  the  colony  with  an  indictment  for  libel 
hanging  over  his  head,  and  was  replaced  by  an  equally  distinguished 
leader  in  the  great  religious  movement  of  the  century.  This  was 
George  Whitefield,  who  succeeded  far  better  than  his  predecessor,  and 
did  much  more  as  missionary  and  preacher;  but  he,  too,  came  and 
went  without  leaving  any  enduring  impress. 

Annoying  as  the  Wesleys  were,  Oglethorpe  brought  two  far  more 
prolific  sources  of  trouble  than  the  future  reformers.  Parliament  had 
seen  fit  to  pass  two  acts,  one  excluding  rum,  the  other  slaves,  from 
the  new  colony.  The  theory  of  these  restrictions  was  sound  enough ; 
but  one  was  in  its  nature  impossible,  and  the  other  was  impracticable, 
not  only  because  South  Carolina  employed  slaves,  but  because  it  was 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  191 

universally  believed  that  Georgia  could  not  be  cultivated  except  by 
negro  labor.  Rum  came  in  from  the  neighboring  province  as  freely 
as  ever,  and  evasion  of  the  law  was  added  to  drunkenness.  Slaves, 
too,  were  smuggled  in  now  and  then,  and  the  prohibition  of  slavery 
formed  a  normal  grievance  and  subject  of  controversy,  which  became 
more  and  more  serious  as  time  went  on. 

Oglethorpe  found  the  colony  much  extended  and  improved,  and 
set  himself  at  once  to  work  with  his  accustomed  energy  to  still  fur 
ther  strengthen  and  spread  the  settlements.  He  superintended  the 
removal  of  the  Salzburgers  to  a  new  place,  extended  and  confirmed 
the  Indian  treaties,  established  a  trading -post  at  Augusta,  and 
strengthened  the  Scotch  colony  at  Darien.  His  principal  work, 
however,  was  to  found  Frederica,  and  establish  there  a  portion  of  his 
new  emigrants.  This  was  a  task  of  considerable  difficulty,  and  while 
the  new  settlement  was  in  its  infancy  Oglethorpe  was  in  constant  fear 
of  a  Spanish  attack,  which  would  have  ruined  the  colony  and  cost 
him  his  life.  By  a  mixture  of  strategy  and  audacity,  however,  he  suc 
ceeded  in  warding  off  the  danger.  He  had  an  indecisive  interview 
with  the  Spanish  commissioner,  upon  whom  he  imposed  by  a  show 
of  force,  and  gained  time  to  form  some  defences ;  and  after  settling  a 
variety  of  vexatious  disputes  at  Savannah,  he  again  returned  to  Eng 
land  in  order  to  obtain  troops,  for  he  plainly  perceived  that  the  col 
ony,  in  its  weak  state,  would  quickly  fall  before  a  Spanish  invasion. 

On  his  arrival  in  England,  he  found  abundance  to  do  in  dealing 
•with  the  question  of  the  Indian  trade,  which  had  come  to  an  issue  be 
tween  South  Carolina  and  Georgia,  and  which  was  mixed  up  with  seiz 
ures  of  South  Carolina  rum  by  the  Savannah  magistrates.  He  had 
also  to  repel  the  calumnies  spread  against  him  by  opponents  in  the 
colony,  and  settle  the  difficulties  raised  by  the  Wesleys.  He  steadily 
persevered,  too,  in  his  main  purpose  of  procuring  aid  to  defend  the  col 
ony,  and  was  appointed  General  for  Georgia  by  the  King,  and  given 
authority  to  raise  a  regiment.  This  he  at  once  proceeded  to  do,  and, 
besides  some  regular  troops  sent  from  Gibraltar,  he  raised  a  force  of 
six  hundred  men,  with  which  he  returned  to  Georgia.  These 
troops  -were  allowed  to  take  their  families,  in  order  to  induce 
them  to  settle  in  the  province,  and  there  were,  besides  a  number  of 
officers,  young  volunteers  of  good  family. 

These  re-enforcements  came  none  too  soon,  for  the  relations  be 
tween  England  and  Spain  had  become  very  strained,  and  a  rupture 
was  imminent.  Oglethorpe  immediately  strengthened  his  posts  ev- 


192  HISTORY  OF  THE 

cry  where,  and  opened  a  road  from  Frederica  to  the  sea-forts,  where  he 
shrewdly  perceived  the  decisive  struggle  would  come.  He  then  pass 
ed  some  time  at  Savannah,  where  there  was  much  disorder  and  fac 
tion.  He  removed  the  Company's  store-keeper,  who  had  been  corrupt 
and  extravagant,  retrenched  expenditures,  and  reorganized  the  militia. 
His  most  important  act,  however,  was  a  visit  to  the  Creeks  and  Cher- 
okees,  for  he  succeeded  in  checking  Spanish  intrigues,  and  in  gaining 
great  influence  over  these  tribes,  which  he  never  lost,  and  in  binding 
them  firmly  to  the  English  alliance.  The  next  effort  of  the  Spaniards 
was  to  stir  up  a  negro  insurrection  in  South  Carolina  which  proved 
very  formidable,  but  was  finally  put  down  by  the  exertions  of  the 
government,  and  by  Oglethorpe's  activity  in  stopping  the  runaways. 
This  attack  and  the  murders  of  soldiers  at  outlying  posts,  as  well  as 
the  news  from  England,  decided  Oglethorpe  that  the  time  had 
come  for  energetic  measures,  and  he  accordingly  made  a  sol 
emn  declaration  of  war  at  Savannah. 

The  winter  passed  in  raising  and  disposing  troops,  preparing  forts, 
summoning  Indians,  and  in  an  occasional  incursion  into  Florida,  until 
in  the  spring  Admiral  Vernon  appeared  with  the  English  fleet.  Some 
ships  were  detached,  and  a  combined  attack  was  made  under  Ogle 
thorpe  on  St.  Augustine.  After  a  few  slight  successes  everything 
went  wrong ;  the  Indians  deserted,  some  of  the  troops  were  cut  off, 
ships  got  in  and  relieved  the  town,  and  Oglethorpe  had  finally  to 
withdraw,  and  bear  the  loud  censure  of  the  naval  officers,  and 
of  the  South  Carolinians,  who  were  chiefly  to  blame  by  their 
delays.  This  unlucky  expedition,  considering  the  undoubted  military 
abilities  of  the  commander,  can  only  be  explained  by  a  lack  of  cohe 
sion  among  the  troops,  and  an  apparent  failure  on  the  part  of  Ogle 
thorpe,  despite  strenuous  exertions  and  great  gallantry,  to  show  his 
usual  foresight.  The  invasion,  although  a  failure,  had  one  good  re 
sult,  for  it  put  the  Spaniards  on  the  defensive,  and  gave  the  colony 
peace  for  two  years.  In  this  interval  Oglethorpe  had  time  to  regu 
late  the  internal  affairs  of  his  government,  which  were  loose  and  dis 
ordered,  as  they  always  became  except  when  under  his  immediate  su 
pervision.  The  plan  of  a  colony  as  a  charitable  institution  did  not,  in 
fact,  work  well ;  the  rule  of  the  Trustees  was  feeble  and  injudicious, 
and  the  settlements  did  not  grow  as  they  would  have  done  under  a 
firmer  government. 

Having  regulated  matters   at  Savannah,  Oglethorpe  returned  to 
Frederica,  now  a  neatly  and  strongly  built  town  of  about  a  thousand 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  193 

inhabitants ;  and  here  he  established  his  head-quarters,  and  devoted 
himself  to  further  improvements  in  the  defences.  He  suffered  con 
tinual  annoyance  from  the  factions  at  Savannah,  who  took  advantage 
of  the  unpopularity  of  the  slave  and  liquor  laws  to  violate  them,  and 
to  intrigue  against  and  abuse  the  Governor ;  and  he  was  still  further 
troubled  by  the  schemes  and  quarrels  of  Whitefield,  who,  both  by  his 
preaching  and  by  his  orphan  asylum,  succeeded  in  keeping  the  colony 
in  a  state  of  ferment.  CMethorpe  carried  himself  and  his  government 
through  these  difficulties  with  a  steady  hand,  and  remained  at  his  post 
preparing  for  the  Spanish  attack  which  he  foresaw  would  be  attempted. 
At  last  news  began  to  come  of  the  preparations  of  the  Spaniards, 
and  Oglethorpe  sent  to  South  Carolina  and  to  Admiral  Vernon  for 
aid.  No  help  came;  but  in  the  summer  of  1742  the  Span 
iards,  with  five  thousand  men  from  Florida  and  Havana,  and 
a  fleet  of  thirty  vessels,  appeared  off  St.  Simon's  Island,  and  threat 
ened  Frederica.  Oglethorpe  called  in  all  his  troops,  but  could  only 
muster  eight  hundred  men,  and  with  these  he  determined  to  defend 
himself  to  the  last  extremity.  His  first  feat  was  to  carry  relief  to 
one  of  the  sea-forts,  forcing  his  way  in  two  galleys  through  the  Span 
ish  fleet,  sinking  four  of  their  galleys,  and  returning  in  safety.  This 
exploit  greatly  encouraged  the  troops,  and  a  stubborn  resistance  was 
made  to  the  passage  of  the  sound  by  a  few  vessels,  and  by  the  shore 
batteries.  When  the  Spaniards  at  last  got  through,  Oglethorpe  fell 
back  in  good  order  on  Frederica,  and  his  carefully  planned  defences 
now  stood  him  in  good  stead.  The  Spaniards,  unable  to  reach  the 
town  by  sea,  landed  troops,  and  advanced  on  the  road  cut  by  Ogle 
thorpe.  The  English  troops  fled  at  the  Spanish  advance ;  but  a  de 
tachment  of  Highlanders  and  Indians,  concealing  themselves  in  the 
woods,  fell  upon  the  Spaniards  in  the  rear  as  they  were  resting,  and 
routed  them  with  terrible  slaughter,  Oglethorpe  appearing  with  the 
other  troops,  which  he  had  rallied,  just  at  the  moment  of  victory. 
This  disaster  caused  dissensions  among  the  Spaniards,  and  Oglethorpe, 
assuming  the  aggressive,  harassed  them  without  mercy,  and  finally,  by 
a  well-conceived  stratagem,  and  by  the  fortunate  appearance  of  some 
English  vessels,  deceived  them  into  the  belief  that  heavy  re-enforce 
ments  were  at  hand,  and  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  them  take  to 
their  ships  in  a  panic  and  sail  away.  Thus  Oglethorpe  saved  two 
provinces  to  England  by  as  gallant  fighting  and  shrewd  generalship 
as  the  whole  history  of  the  American  colonies  can  show.  In  the  fol 
lowing  year  he  again  assumed  the  offensive,  and  carried  the  war  into 

13 


194  HISTORY  OF  THE 

Florida  with  his  faithful  Indians  and  Highlanders,  even  to  the  walls  of 
St.  Augustine,  reducing  the  Spaniards  to  a  state  of  timorous 
defence.     He  soon  after  left  Georgia,  never  to  return ;   and 
on  his  arrival  in  England,  having  refuted  various  calumnious  charges 
made  against  him  by  one  of  his  officers,  and  by  the  South  Carolini 
ans,  who  had  used  him  very  badly,  he  was  promoted  to  be  a  lieuten 
ant-general.     Thus  closed  Oglethorpe's  career  in  America ;  and  few 
men  have  ever  rendered  better  service  to  their  own  country,  or  to  the 
commonwealths  they  have  founded. 

The  colony,  however,  in  spite  of  Oglethorpe's  exertions,  had  not 
thriven.  The  policy  of  the  Trustees  had  been  a  narrow  and  mistaken 
one.  The  Rum  Act  had  been  a  constant  source  of  trouble,  discontent, 
and  corruption  on  the  part  of  the  magistrates,  and  was  at  last  repealed 
in  1742.  The  tenure  of  land  had  been  made  that  of  tail-male,  with 
close  restrictions  on  alienation,  and  this  had  led  to  much  discontent, 
to  opposition,  petitions,  and  resistance,  until  a  more  liberal  tenure  was 
granted  in  1739.  In  the  matter  of  slaves,  the  course  of  events  was 
somewhat  similar.  The  Highlanders  and  Salzburgers  were  opposed  to 
the  introduction  of  negroes,  but  the  landholders  and  planters  at  Savan 
nah  were  most  eager  for  them.  Petitions  for  the  introduction  of  slaves 
began  to  come  in  1735;  but,  although  the  Trustees  had  no  objection 
to  modified  white  slavery  in  the  way  of  indented  servants,  they  held 
firm  against  negroes.  On  this  subject  feeling  soon  ran  high,  and  all 
the  elements  of  opposition  united  against  the  Trustees  with  a  bitter 
and  factious  hostility,  which  gave  Oglethorpe  great  trouble,  and  final 
ly  reached  such  a  point  that  the  quarrel  became  the  subject  of  Parlia 
mentary  investigation.  Parliament  exonerated  the  Trustees,  ordered 
the  repeal  of  the  Rum  Act,  but  refused  to  meddle  with  that  against 
slavery.  The  struggle  was  then  renewed  both  in  Georgia  and  Eng 
land,  and  became  so  bitter  as  to  threaten  the  very  existence  of  the 
colony.  At  last,  in  1749,  in  the  face  of  the  popular  demand  and  of 
the  constant  violation  of  the  law,  the  Trustees  gave  way  and  admit 
ted  slaves,  but  under  humane  restrictions.  The  system  of  government 
by  bailiffs,  magistrates,  and  town  courts  proved  a  failure  also,  after 
causing  much  bickering  and  faction,  and  was  changed  to  government 
by  a  President  and  assistants. 

On  Oglethorpe's  departure,  William   Stephens,  the  secretary,  was 

made  President,  and  continued  in  office  until  1751,  when  he 

was  succeeded  by  Henry  Parker.     The  colony,  when  Stephens 

came  into  office,  comprised  about  fifteen  hundred  persons.     It  was  al- 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  195 

most  at  a  stand-still.  The  brilliant  prospects  of  the  early  days  were 
dissipated,  and  immigration  had  ceased,  thanks  to  the  narrow  policy 
and  feeble  government  of  the  Trustees.  An  Indian  rising,  in  1749, 
headed  by  Mary  Musgrove,  Oglethorpe's  Indian  interpreter,  and  her 
husband,  one  Bosomworth,  who  laid  claim  to  the  whole  country,  came 
near  causing  the  destruction  of  the  colony,  and  was  only  repressed  by 
much  negotiation  and  lavish  bribes. 

The  colony,  thus  feeble  and  threatened,  struggled  on,  until  it  was 
relieved  from  danger  from  the  Indians  and  from  the  restrictive  laws, 
and  encouraged  by  the  appointment  of  Parker,  and  the  establishment 
of  a  representative  government.  This  produced  a  turn  in  the  affairs 
of  Georgia.  Trade  revived,  immigration  was  renewed,  and  every 
thing  began  to  wear  again  a  more  hopeful  look.  Just  at  this  time, 
however,  the  original  trust  was  on  the  point  of  expiring  by  limitation. 
There  was  a  party  in  the  colony  who  desired  a  renewal  of  the  char 
ter  ;  but  the  Trustees  felt  that  their  scheme  had  failed  in  every  way, 
except  perhaps  as  a  defence  to  South  Carolina,  and  when  the  limit  of 
the  charter  was  reached,  they  turned  T:he  colony  over  to  the 
Crown.  Georgia  then  passed  from  the  stage  of  philanthropic 
experiment  into  the  normal  condition  of  a  Crown  province,  after  the 
fashion  of  most  of  the  American  colonies,  and  according  to  the  laws 
which  had  governed  the  development  of  all  the  British  possessions 
in  America,  no  matter  what  their  origin  had  been. 

A  form  of  government  was  established  similar  to  those  of  the  other 
royal  provinces,  and  Captain  John  Reynolds  was  sent  out  as 
the  first  Governor,  and  was  joyfully  received  by  the  inhabi 
tants.     The  new  -Governor  was  somewhat  dismayed  at  the  wretched 
appearance  of  the  colony,  but  set  to  work  to  survey  and  improve  the 
forts  and  other  defences,  established  a  judicial  system,  and  called  to 
gether  an  Assembly.     This  last  act  was  the  signal  for  immediate  con 
tention.     In  the  first  Assembly  the  trouble  was  caused  by  a  faction  ; 
and  the   quarrel  which  concerned  the  Indian  trade  almost  reached 
the  dimensions  of  a  revolt.     After  this,  matters  went  from  bad  to 
worse,  the  fault  now  being  on  the  side  of  the  Governor,  who  fell  un 
der  the  influence  of  the  secretary,  a  corrupt  and  intriguing  politician  ; 
and  this  resulted  in  so  much  oppression  and  extortion,  and  the  com 
plaints  of  the  colonists  became  so  repeated  and  loud,  that  Reynolds 
was  at  last  recalled,  and  succeeded  by  Henry  Ellis  as  Lieu 
tenant-governor.     The  change  proved  fortunate,  and  brought 
rest  to  the  colony.     Ellis  ruled  peaceably  and  with  general  respect 


196  HISTORY  OF  THE 

for  more  than  two  years,  and  was  then  promoted  to  the  governor- 

ship  of  Nova  Scotia.     In  the  same  year  his  successor  arrived 

at  Savannah,  in  the  person  of  James  Wright,  who  continued 

to  govern  the  province  until  it  was  severed  from  England  by  the 

Revolution. 

The  feebleness  of  Georgia  had  prevented  her  taking  part  in  the 
union  of  the  colonies,  and  she  was  not  represented  in  the  Congress  at 
Albany.  Georgia  also  escaped  the  ravages  of  the  French  war,  partly 
by  her  distant  situation,  and  partly  by  the  prudence  of  Governor  Ellis ; 
and  the  conclusion  of  that  war  gave  Florida  to  England,  and  relieved 
the  colony  from  the  continual  menace  of  Spanish  aggression.  A  great 
Congress  of  southern  Governors  and  Indian  chiefs  followed,  in  which 
Wright,  more  active  than  his  predecessor,  took  a  prominent 
part.  Under  his  energetic  and  firm  rule,  the  colony  began 
to  prosper  greatly,  and  trade  increased  rapidly ;  but  the  Governor 
gained  at  the  same  time  so  much  influence,  and  was  a  man  of  so  much 
address,  that  he  not  only  held  the  colony  down  at  the  time  of  the 
Stamp  Act,  but  seriously  hampered  its  action  in  the  years  which  led 
to  revolution.  When  the  circular  from  Massachusetts  arrived  re 
garding  the  Stamp  Act  Congress,  it  met  with  general  favor  in  the  As 
sembly  and  among  the  people  ;  for  there  was  deep  and  bitter  opposi 
tion  here  as  elsewhere  to  the  new  policy  of  taxation.  Wright,  how 
ever,  succeeded  in  preventing  the  sending  of  delegates  to  New 
York,  and  crippled  the  action  of  Georgia,  reducing  it  to  a  mere 
expression  of  good  intentions.  In  the  months  of  excitement  which 
ensued,  great  disorder  prevailed ;  armed  bands  appeared  at  various 
points ;  there  were  mobs  in  Savannah,  and  serious  attacks  meditated 
upon  the  fort  and  the  Governor's  house ;  but  Wright  proved  equal  to 
the  emergency.  With  a  mere  handful  of  troops,  he  kept  the  peace, 
avoided  bloodshed,  and  although  obliged  to  remove  the  stamps  to  the 
British  man-of-war  in  the  river,  he  compelled  their  use  in  clearing 
vessels,  a  proceeding  which  caused  deep  indignation  in  South  Caro 
lina  and  elsewhere.  The  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act  brought  a  tempo 
rary  calm ;  but  Georgia,  although  unrepresented  at  New  York,  and 
although  the  youngest  and  weakest  of  the  provinces,  was  drawn  into 
the  general  current,  and  when  the  next  circular  letter  came 
from  Massachusetts,  was  prepared  to  enter  into  conflict  with 
her  adroit  Governor,  and  take  a  part  in  the  history  of  the  united  col- 
onies  and  in  the  national  movement. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  197 


CHAPTER  X. 

GEORGIA  IN  1765. 

THE  late  settlement  of  Georgia,  and  its  use  as  a  field  for  the  trial 
of  philanthropic  experiments,  rendered  society  there,  at  the  time  of 
the  Revolution,  extremely  crude  and  unformed,  and  in  the  country 
districts  rude  and  wild.  It  was  on  the  South  Carolina  model,  but 
had  neither  the  stability  nor  the  well-defined  features  of  its  older  and 
stronger  neighbor. 

So  long  as  the  province  continued  in  the  hands  of  the  Trustees  its 
progress  was  extremely  slow,  and  sometimes  totally  arrested.  The 
population,  when  Georgia  passed  to  the  Crown,  did  not  amount  to 
five  thousand  whites,  and  slaves  had  been  excluded  by  the  policy  of 
the  Trustees.  With  the  establishment  of  the  royal  government,  and 
especially  after  the  treaty  of  Paris,  slaves  were  imported  in  great 
numbers,  and  the  white  immigration  assumed  large  proportions.  Just 
previous  to  the  Revolution  the  population  had  risen  to  over  fifty  thou 
sand  souls,  of  whom  one-half  at  least  were  slaves.1  The  character  of 
the  white  population  was  not  so  good  as  in  many  of  the  other  colo 
nies.  Among  the  first  settlers  there  were,  of  course,  some  men  of 
good  substance,  who  came  out  at  their  own  expense,  but  the  great 
body  of  immigrants  were  taken  from  the  debtors'  prisons  in  accord 
ance  with  the  humane  objects  of  the  Trustees.  Some  of  the  persons 
thus  released  made  the  best  of  their  opportunities,  and  did  well  in 
their  new  home ;  but  many  were  either  vitiated  by  the  prison  life,  or 
were  by  nature  shiftless,  bankrupt  adventurers,  who  were  an  injury  to 
any  society,  and  especially  to  one  just  founded  and  struggling  for 
existence.  The  servants,  too,  were  the  scum  of  the  London  streets, 
and,  unrestrained  by  the  severe  laws  in  vogue  elsewhere,  ran  away  to 
South  Carolina  and  Florida,  or  lurked  in  the  woods  and  on  the  boun- 


1  Bancroft,  iv.,  127,  note ;  Smyth,  ii.,  45  ;  Georgia  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  iii.,  Sir  James 
Wright's  Account 


198  HISTORY  OF  THE 

dary-lines,  and  preyed  upon  society.  Gradually  better  elements  be 
gan  to  come.  There  were  Scotch  settlements  at  Darien  and  Frederi- 
ca;  some  thriving  villages  of  Salzburgers,  and  later,  descendants  of  the 
Puritans,  who  had  settled  in  South  Carolina  in  1697 ;  while  a  Jewish 
immigration,  which  began  with  promise,  was  checked  by  the  Trustees. 
After  the  establishment  of  the  royal  government,  immigration  in 
creased  and  improved.  A  large  body  of  Quakers  came  in  1763, 
besides  the  usual  and  valuable  settlers  always  attracted  by  the  profits 
promised  in  agriculture  and  trade.1 

The  government  founded  by  the  Trustees  was  one  in  name  alone. 
There  was  in  reality  no  general  government.  The  towns  either  had 
no  government  at  all,  or  were  organized  according  to  the  taste  of  the 
inhabitants.  Savannah  had  bailiffs  and  recorder,  and  her  govern 
ment  was  thoroughly  bad.  The  Salzburgers  had  in  their  villages  a 
semi-religious  system,  with  large  tracts  of  communal  land  held  by  the 
Church,  while  at  Sunbury  the  government  was  on  the  New  England 
model.  The  legislation  of  the  Trustees  was  chiefly  concerned  with 
matters  of  police,  and  had  a  general  character  of  philanthropic  med 
dling.  Their  policy  of  prohibiting  rum  and  negroes,  based  on  moral 
views,  and  on  the  scheme  of  making  the  colony  a  sort  of  half  mili 
tary  outpost,  was  highly  distasteful  to  their  subjects,  who  grumbled 
that  the  loss  of  the  former  destroyed  their  trade,  and  the  want  of  the 
latter  made  agriculture  impossible.  In  this  way  the  Trustees  became 
terribly  unpopular.  Their  cattle  were  killed,  their  laws  evaded,  and 
their  high  quit-rents  avoided.  A  war  of  pamphlets  ensued,  political 
faction  ran  high,  all  progress  was  stayed ;  until  at  last  the  Trustees,  in 
disgust,  handed  over  their  charter  to  the  Crown,  and  Georgia  entered 
upon  a  career  of  prosperity.8 

The  first  Assembly,  which  met  at  Savannah  in  the  year  1*751,  seems 
to  have  been  little  more  than  a  grand-jury  elected  to  make  presenta 
tions  of  grievances  to  the  Council ;  but  a  few  years  later  the  govern 
ment  of  the  Crown  was  organized  on  the  usual  model.  There  was  a 
Governor  possessing  the  customary  powers,  a  Council  which  sat  as  an 

1  Smyth, ii., 41;  Jones,  Dead  Towns  of  Georgia;  Moore's  Voyage  to  Georgia, p. 
24 ;  Georgia  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  Stephens's  State  of  the  Province ;  Ibid.,  A  Brief  Ac 
count,  p.  97 ;  Lee's  History  of  Savannah ;  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  604 ;  Graham's  United 
States,  iv.,  185. 

a  Jones,  Dead  Towns  of  Georgia,  pp.  23,  145  ;  Georgia  Hist.  Coll.,  i.,  Brief  Ac 
count,  p.  97;  Ibid.,  True  and  Hist.  Narratives,  p.  195;  Ibid.,  Trustees'  Account; 
Lee's  Savannah,  p.  8, 1734 ;  Stephens's  Journal,  i.,  169. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  199 

Upper  House,  and  an  Assembly.  All  executive  and  judicial  officers 
were  appointed  by  the  Crown,  and  paid  fixed  salaries  by  the  British 
government.  The  delegates  were  required  to  own  five  hundred  acres 
of  land,  and  were  chosen  by  the  freeholders,  the  suffrage  being  con 
fined  to  those  who  were  proprietors  of  fifty  acres  or  a  town  lot.1 

The  Governor  was  chancellor,  and  sat  with  the  Council  as  a  court 
of  chancery  and  of  admiralty.  There  was  also  a  general  court  of 
common-pleas,  county  courts,  and  local  justices'  courts.  An  appeal 
could  be  carried  to  the  Governor  if  involving  more  than  three  hun 
dred,  and  to  the  King  in  Council  if  more  than  five  hundred  pounds.8 

The  militia  of  the  colony,  owing  to  its  exposed  situation,  was  effec 
tive,  and  included  all  males  between  sixteen  and  sixty.  Taxation  was 
light.  Quit-rents  were  paid  to  the  King,  and  revenues  raised  on  rum, 
negroes,  and  West  India  produce,  supplemented  by  a  small  direct  tax 
on  lands,  houses,  and  slaves.  The  salaries  were  few  and  small,  and  the 
necessary  charges  of  government  not  above  four  thousand  pounds, 
while  the  militia  were  thriftily  required  to  furnish  themselves  with 
arms  and  clothing.3 

The  philanthropy  of  the  Trustees  had  an  effect  upon  the  material 
growth  of  the  colony  no  less  depressing  than  upon  its  political  devel 
opment.  They  wished  to  achieve  the  impossible,  to  form  a  communi 
ty,  and  establish  methods  and  habits  wholly  at  variance  with  the  con 
ditions  of  climate  and  soil.  They  sought  to  build  up  a  society  living 
in  towns,  and  consisting  of  small  freeholders,  after  the  New  England 
fashion  in  the  tropical  region  of  Georgia.  To  prevent  the  formation 
of  large  estates,  they  made  grants  of  only  fifty  acres  and  a  town  lot 
to  each  settler  in  tail-male,  with  reversion  to  the  Trustees,  and  a  special 
license  was  further  required  for  the  alienation  of  any  estate  in  land. 
This  arrangement  led  to  frauds  and  dissatisfaction,  crippled  the  activ 
ity,  and  cooled  the  interest  of  the  colonists,  and  was  finally  abandoned 
by  its  projectors.4  In  the  same  spirit  they  interfered  with  the  natural 
course  of  agriculture  and  industry.  They  obliged  the  Salzburgers  to 
maintain  the  culture  of  silk,  considerable  quantities  of  which  were  made 
and  exported,  and  which  was  sustained  at  Ebenezer  even  down  to  the 

1  Georgia  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  iii.,  Sir  James  Wright's  Account ;  Lee's  Hist,  of  Savan 
nah;  Hildreth,  ii.,  454. 

3  Sir  James  Wright,  ibid. ;  Hildreth,  ii.,  454.  *  Sir  James  Wright,  ibid. 

4  Georgia  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,i.,  25  ;  Ibid.,  Impartial  Inquiry,  p.  165  ;  Ibid.,  ii.,  92, 
A  Brief  Account;  Ibid.,  Trustees'  Account;  Moore's  Voyage  to  Georgia,  p.  24 ; 
Jones,  Dead  Towns  of  Georgia,  p.  145. 


200  HISTORY  OF  THE 

Revolution  by  bounties.  But  the  manufacture  was  carried  on  at  a  loss, 
and  when  state  aid  was  withdrawn  this  always  languishing  industry 
speedily  expired.  In  a  similar  way  they  strove  to  enforce  the  plant 
ing  of  vineyards  and  the  production  of  oil,  and  not  wholly  without 
success;  but  both  ultimately  shared  the  fate  of  the  silk-worm,  and 
were  too  artificial  to  have  any  real  prosperity.1  For  moral  purposes 
they  prohibited  the  importation  of  negroes,  whose  labor  was  essential 
in  that  latitude,  and  of  rum,  which  injured  the  trade  with  the  West 
Indies.  Both  prohibitions  were  evaded  by  encouraging  and  receiving 
runaways  from  South  Carolina,  and  by  the  open  sale  of  the  forbidden 
liquor,  and  thus  a  contempt  for  law  was  engendered  as  well  as  gen 
eral  discontent.2  The  general  result  of  this  whole  system  was  that 
trade  stagnated,  and  the  small  plantations  failed.3 

Under  the  royal  government  these  restrictions  disappeared,  rapid 
progress  began,  and  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution  the  exports  and 
imports  were  worth  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  pounds.4  The 
trade  was  principally  with  Great  Britain,  but  there  was  also  a  fair  traf 
fic  with  the  West  Indies.  The  land  was  being  rapidly  cleared  and  oc 
cupied,  and  the  colony  had  settled  down  to  the  production  of  rice,  in 
digo,  lumber,  and  skins  obtained  by  a  lucrative  and  active  trade  with 
the  Indians.  Cattle  had  become  numerous  and  valuable,  and  cheese 
and  butter  were  made,  instead  of  being  imported  from  the  north. 
They  still  depended  on  the  Middle  States  for  flour,  which  drained  them 
of  specie ;  and  although  they  grew  cotton,  only  a  small  portion  was 
spun  by  the  Scotch  settlers  for  domestic  use.  They  had  no  manufact 
ures  of  any  sort,  but  were  wholly  dependent  on  the  mother  country 
— a  misfortune  common  to  all  the  southern  group — and  no  mines  had 
been  opened.  Despite  these  drawbacks,  however,  and  an  agriculture 
much  lower  than  that  of  South  Carolina,  Georgia  was  prosperous,  and 
the  employment  of  over  two  hundred  vessels,  of  which  thirty-six  were 
owned  in  the  colony,  was  a  sure  sign  of  active  and  profitable  commerce.' 

The  towns  were,  of  course,  insignificant,  although  Savannah  gave 

1  Jones,  Dead  Towns  of  Georgia,  p.  23  ;  Stephens's  Journal,  iii.,  186  ;  Hist.  Coll., 
i.,  25. 

1  Hist.  Coll.,  i.,  p.  25 ;  Ibid.,  ii.,  True  and  Hist.  Narrative ;  Stephens's  Journal,  i., 
169,  273.  3  Jones,  Dead  Towns  of  Georgia,  pp.  23, 145. 

*  Smyth,  ii.,  50 ;  Hist.  Coll.,  iii.,  Sir  James  Wright's  Account. 

*  Bartram's  Travels,  p.  19;  Smyth,  ii.,  44, 45,  53  ;  Jones,  Dead  Towns  of  Geor 
gia,  pp.  23, 146 ;  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  609  ;  Hist.  Coll.,  iii.,  Sir  James  Wright's  Ac 
count  ;  Lee's  History  of  Savannah. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  201 

promise  of  growth  and  importance.  At  the  time  of  the  Revolution 
it  was  a  pretty  country  town  of  some  twelve  hundred  inhabitants, 
with  large,  cool  houses,  built  of  wood,  and  separated  by  open  spaces 
of  garden  or  field.  Sunbury,  founded  by  the  New  England  immi 
grants,  came  next,  with  about  a  thousand  inhabitants,  and  a  good 
share  of  the  commerce ;  but  it  had  already  begun  to  decline  in  im 
portance,  although  it  still  retained  its  character  for  a  polite  and  edu 
cated  society  of  wealthy  planters  and  farmers.  Augusta,  above  Savan 
nah,  at  the  head  of  navigation,  was  a  straggling  but  thriving  village, 
where  the  Indian  trade  centred.  The  chief  seat  of  the  Salzburgers 
at  Ebenezer  was  a  mere  hamlet ;  and  the  Scotch  settlement  at  Fred- 
erica,  a  neat,  busy  little  town  in  the  early  days,  when  it  was  an  out 
post,  had  been  almost  deserted  after  the  withdrawal  of  the  troops.1 

It  is  obvious  that  there  was  nothing  in  Georgia  which  could  be 
properly  called  town  life.  Almost  every  one  was  a  small  farmer  or 
planter,  and  large  estates  were  comparatively  rare.  In  the  neighbor 
hood  of  Savannah  and  along  the  coasts  were  many  pretty  plantations, 
some  of  which  possessed  large  houses,  and  displayed  the  Virginian 
magnificence,  but  on  all  the  owners  led  an  easy,  tranquil  existence. 
In  the  back  districts,  then  being  rapidly  settled,  the  life  was  much 
ruder,  more  isolated,  and,  owing  to  the  proximity  of  Spaniards  and 
Indians,  very  dangerous.  Men  went  to  church  armed,  and  a  trip  to 
Savannah  was  a  great  event,  as  the  only  mode  of  travel  was  on  horse 
back,  whether  for  business  or  pleasure.  Gigs  were  not  introduced  un 
til  after  the  Revolution,  and  the  infrequent  mail  was  carried  through 
the  province  by  riders.  Among  the  planters  of  the  better  sort  much 
time  was  given  to  the  simple  amusements  of  fishing,  sailing,  hunting, 
and  riding;  while  as  early  as  the  year  1748  horse-races  were  estab 
lished  at  Savannah,  betting  began,  and  a  club  was  founded.  The 
gambling,  once  started,  took  a  strong  hold  upon  the  people,  if  we  may 
judge  from  the  laws  against  betting,  gaming,  and  lotteries.  Gambling 
brawls  were  common,  and  there  was  not  only  a  good  deal  of  fighting 
whenever  any  gathering  occurred,  but  the  brutal  practice  of  gouging 
was  so  much  indulged  in  that  it  was  found  necessary  to  make  the  pil 
lory  and  lashes  the  punishment  for  the  first,  and  death  the  penalty  for 
the  second  offence.2 

1  Smyth,  ii.,  44 ;  Moore's  Voyage,  p.  24 ;  Jones,  Dead  Towns  of  Georgia,  p.  23 ; 
Hist.  Coll.,  iv.,  Itinerant  Observations,  p.  18  ;  Lee's  History  of  Savannah. 

2  Jones,  Dead  Towns  of  Georgia,  pp.  23,  145 ;  Georgia  Laws,  1764, 1770, 1777, 
1787  ;  Stephens's  Journal,  i.,  329 ;  ii.,  421 ;  Memoirs  of  Elkanah  Watson. 


202  HISTORY  OF  THE 

Among  the  whites  of  Georgia  there  were  no  well-defined  classes. 
The  great  majority  of  the  inhabitants  belonged  probably  to  the  mid 
dle  class — as  known  in  Virginia — and  were  not  distinctive  or  peculiar 
in  any  way.  The  system  they  had  founded  was  unfinished  and  crude, 
but  it  was  essentially  aristocratic  in  theory,  and  could  develop  only  into 
an  aristocracy.  This  was,  of  course,  determined  by  the  introduction  of 
slavery  under  the  royal  government.  As  soon  as  the  blacks  became  nu 
merous  and  important,  legislation  was  framed  upon  the  ferocious  model 
of  South  Carolina,  the  code  of  Georgia  being  little  more  than  a  repe 
tition  of  that  of  the  older  colony.  Patrols  were  established  to  search 
the  negro  quarters  for  arms,  beat  stray  blacks,  and  break  up  their 
meetings.  Slaves  could  not  leave  the  plantations  without  a  ticket, 
nor  travel  in  companies  of  more  than  seven ;  and  any  one  who  vent 
ured  to  teach  them  to  write  incurred  a  heavy  penalty.  The  punish 
ment  for  striking  a  white,  if  it  was  a  second  offence,  was  death. 
Slavery  was  said  to  be  milder  in  Georgia  than  in  South  Carolina,  but 
the  theory  of  their  position  was  the  same,  and  they  probably  fared 
little  better,  on  the  whole.  It  is  certain  that  they  were  wretchedly 
fed,  clothed,  and  housed.1  The  indented  servants,  after  the  royal  gov 
ernment  came  in,  differed  in  no  respect  from  those  of  the  other  col 
onies.2  These  servile  elements  furnished  the  criminal  class,  which  was 
numerous  and  dangerous,  out  of  proportion  to  the  size  of  the  colony, 
being  augmented  by  runaway  servants  and  slaves  from  the  other  prov 
inces,  who  escaped  into  Spanish  territory,  mingled  with  the  Indians, 
and  were  a  source  of  constant  peril  and  fear  to  the  outlying  planta 
tions.  These  vagabonds,  when  captured,  received  a  full  allowance  of 
whipping,  branding,  and  pillory  for  their  robberies  and  cattle  liftings ; 
but  the  situation  of  Georgia,  at  the  extremity  of  a  line  of  slave  states, 
made  even  the  worst  punishments  ineffective  in  reducing  the  number 
of  criminals  or  the  frequency  of  crime.* 

The  youth  and  unsettled  condition  of  the  colony  had,  of  course, 
been  unfavorable  to  religion  and  education.  The  religious  sects  va 
ried  from  the  little  spiritual  tyranny  of  the  Salzburgers  to  the  English 
Church,  and  the  early  history  of  religion  in  Georgia  is  one  of  utter 
confusion  and  pointless  wrangling.  Members  of  every  known  sect 
almost — Roman  Catholics  alone  excepted — when  they  arrived  found 

1  Georgia  Laws,  1765,  1778 ;  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  609 ;  Memoirs  of  Elkanah  Wat- 
son. 

9  Georgia  Laws,  1762  ;  Stephens's  Journal,  i.,  389. 
1  Georgia  Laws,  1778 ;  Stephens's  Journal,  i.,  357,436. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  203 

themselves  confronted  by  Wesley,  with  his  dictatorial  ways  and  bitter 
hostility  to  dissenters.  The  royal  government  produced  a  certain  calm, 
and  the  Church  of  England  was  duly  erected,  vestries  formed,  and  taxes 
authorized  for  the  support  of  the  clergy  ;  and  in  the  toleration  toward 
all  faiths,  as  well  as  in  the  general  tone  of  ecclesiastical  legislation,  we 
see  both  the  numerical  strength  of  the  dissenters  and  the  influence  of 
the  Puritan  element.  All  persons  were  compelled  to  attend  church ; 
work  and  play  were  forbidden ;  taverns  were  closed  on  the  Sabbath ; 
and  the  constables,  in  true  New  England  fashion,  were  directed  to  patrol 
the  town  on  Sunday  morning,  and  see  that  these  laws  were  enforced 
and  all  delinquents  punished.  The  Church  went  on  smoothly  enough 
until  the  Revolution,  and  then  was  abandoned  as  a  state  institution.1 
Unimportant  as  were  the  clergy,  and  wholly  devoid  of  influence,  the 
case  in  regard  to  education  was  even  worse.  Itinerant  school-mas 
ters,  who  never  stayed  in  any  one  place  more  than  three  months,  were 
loose  characters,  and  habitually  and  proverbially  drunk,  had  a  monop 
oly  of  teaching,  and  nothing  else  was  offered  by  state  or  individuals  in 
the  cause  of  education.3  After  the  Revolution  a  state  university  was 
established,  and  the  New  England  spirit,  still  lingering  among  the  set 
tlers,  founded  the  Sunbury  Academy ;  but,  in  the  colonial  period,  the 
illiteracy  in  Georgia  was  necessarily  extreme,  and  few  persons  were 
wealthy  enough  to  relieve  the  general  ignorance  by  obtaining  for 
their  sons  a  foreign  education.  There  was  no  literature  whatever, 
except  the  spicy  and  vigorous  pamphlets  called  out  in  the  early  days 
by  the  Oglethorpe  controversy,  when  none  of  the  writers  were  na 
tives.  A  printing-press  and  the  Georgia  Gazette  were  established  at 
Savannah  in  the  year  1763,  but  this  was  all  that  was  effected  for  the 
diffusion  of  knowledge.3 

The  general  political  tendencies  of  the  colonists  did  not  differ  much 
from  those  of  their  neighbors;  but  there  was  more  loyalty  and  de 
pendence  upon  the  Crown  than  elsewhere,  on  account  of  the  weak 
ness  caused  by  recent  settlement.  The  movement  against  Great  Brit 
ain  started  with  the  New  England  element  at  Sunbury,  in  St.  John's 
parish ;  and  this  small  faction  finally  succeeded  in  breaking  down  the 
control  so  long  maintained  by  Sir  James  Wright,  and  in  carrying  the 


1  Georgia  Laws,  1758, 1762, 1778 ;  Hist.  Coll.,  ii.,  92,  Brief  Account ;  Ibid.,  True 
and  Historical  Narrative,  p.  195  ;  Stephens's  Journal,  iii.,  101. 
8  Miller's  Bar  and  Bench  of  Georgia,  i.,  356. 
*  Tyler's  American  Literature ;  Lee's  History  of  Savannah. 


204  BISTORT  OF  THE 

colony  over  to  the  patriot  cause.1  But  there  was  much  lukewarmness 
among  the  people.  The  Germans  were  generally  on  the  patriotic 
side,  but  they  were  not  enthusiastic,  and  a  vigorous  Tory  party  was 
developed  as  the  war  progressed.  The  withdrawal  of  the  strong  hand 
of  England,  and  the  conquest  of  independence,  showed  at  once  the 
crude  and  unformed  state  of  society,  and  that  Georgia  had  not  fairly 
emerged  from  the  first  stage  of  settlement.  For  many  years  the  gov 
ernment  was  ill-regulated  and  unsettled,  and  there  was  much  faction 
and  disorder ;  while  the  back  settlers  were  rough  and  lawless,  and  made 
continual  inroads  upon  Florida.2  From  this  social  and  political  im 
maturity,  Georgia  played  but  an  insignificant  part  either  in  Congress 
or  in  the  war,  and  produced  but  few  able  men.  It  was  long  before 
she  reached  the  position  or  gained  the  weight  to  which  she  was  en 
titled  by  her  extensive  territory  and  great  natural  resources. 

1  Jones,  Dead  Towns  of  Georgia.  2  Rochefoucauld,  L,  604. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  205 


CHAPTEE  XL 

DELAWARE  FROM  1609  TO  1682. 

THREE  kindred  people  from  the  north  of  Europe  contended  for 
the  possession  of  the  noble  bay  and  river  of  Delaware,  and  of  the 
great  region  which  is  now  occupied  by  three  States.    The  Dutch  were 
the  first  discoverers,  and  they  were  also  the  first  settlers,  when  a  por 
tion  of  the  company  which  came  out  with  May  landed  about  four  miles 
below  the  present  city  of  Philadelphia.     This  post,  established,  as  all 
the  early  Dutch  settlements  were,  for  trade,  languished,  and  the 
North  River  proved  more  profitable  than  the  South.     On  the 
establishment  of  the  Patroons,  private  enterprise  made  another  attempt 
to  found  a  colony  upon  the  Delaware,  Heyes  acting  for  the  Patroons. 
The  settlement  of  Swaanendael  was  begun,  and  a  fort  built 
near  the  site  of  the  present  town  of  Lewiston ;  but  the  de 
struction  of  a  tin  plate,  bearing  the  arms  of  Holland,  led  to  a  foolish 
quarrel  with  the  Indians ;  the  colonists  were  massacred,  and  the  settle 
ment  destroyed.     When  De  Vries  came  out  the  following  year  with 
additional  men  and  supplies,  he  found  only  ruins  and  skele 
tons.     He  sadly  concluded  a  peace  with  the  murderers  of  his 
colonists,  and  set  about  retrieving  his  fortunes  by  trade  and  whale- 
fishery.     De  Vries  went  also  to  the  original  settlement  at  Fort  Nas 
sau,  now  deserted  and  neglected,  and,  after  a  visit  to  Virginia,  aban 
doned  his  whale-fishery  and  sailed  away.     After  his  departure,  a  pause 
ensued  in  Dutch  colonization  on  the  Delaware;  but  the  efforts  were 
soon  renewed.     A  house  was  ordered  to  be  built  at  Fort  Nassau,  and 
soon  after  the  Company  bought  out  the  Patroons,  and  took  possession 
of  the  South  River.    Their  hold,  however,  was  nominal  and  precarious. 
Already  the  future  masters  of  the  continent  had  turned  their  eyes  to 
the  region  of  the  Delaware,  and  a  party  from  Virginia  seized  the  vacant 
Dutch  fort.     They  were  speedily  expelled  by  its  rightful  own 
ers,  who  continued  in  possession  until  a  third  nation  sent  forth 
its  colonists  to  share  in  the  vast  country  held  by  Holland. 


206  HISTORY  OF  THE 

The  great  Swedish  ting  had  perceived,  many  years  before,  the 
necessity  and  value  of  colonies  in  the  New  World,  and,  per- 
1626"   suaded  by  the  Amsterdam  merchant  TJsselincx,  founded,  after 
the  Dutch  fashion,  a  Swedish  West  Indian  Company.     But 
greater  matters  required  the  attention  of  the  Northern  races.     The 
battles  of  Protestantism  were  to  be  fought  upon  the  plains  of  Ger 
many,  and  when  Gustavus  Adolphus  fell  at  Lutzen,  Swedish  coloniza 
tion  in  America  was  still  unrealized.     Oxenstiern,  the  heir  of  the  pol 
icy  of  Gustavus,  if  not  of  his  throne,  revived  the  scheme  soon 
after  his  master's  death,  and  invited  the  co-operation  of  Ger 
many,  but  nothing  was  effected ;  and  it  was  not  until  four  years  had 
passed  that  Peter  Minuit,  ex -director  of  the  Dutch  West  In 
dian  Company,  headed  the  first  Swedish  expedition  to  Ameri 
ca.     A  settlement  was  made  on  the  Minquas,  near  the  present  site  of 
Wilmington,  and  Fort  Christina  was  built,  while  the  Dutch, 
through  the  mouth  of  Governor  Kieft,  protested,  after  their 
usual  fashion.      They  had  watched  their  South  River  territory,  al 
though  they  had  not  used  it;  but  they  confined  themselves  to  pro 
tests,  for  it  was  at  that  time  neither  desirable  nor  safe  to  meddle  with 
Sweden,  governed  by  statesmen  and  generals  who  had  been  trained 
by  Gustavus  Adolphus.     The  Swedes,  meantime,  treated  the  Indians 
well,  and  relied  upon  deeds  from  them  as  their  only  title  to  possession. 
Although  the  governing  power  was  in  the  hands  of  a  commercial 
monopoly,  and  under  government  patronage,  the  colonists  were  well 
treated.     Minuit  started  a  lively  trade  in  furs  and  other  products  of 
the  country,  and  after  a  winter  of  privation,  fresh  settlers,  including 
many  Dutchmen,  arrived,  and  the  colony  prospered  and  grew 
strong.     Minuit  died  not  long  after  the  establishment  of  his 
colony,  and  was  succeeded  by  a  Swede,  one  Hollandaere,  who  was  fol 
lowed  by  the   most  noted  of  the  Swedish  Governors,  John 
Printz,  renowned  for  his  violent  temper,  his  great  bulk,  and  ' 
his  fighting  propensities. 

During  Hollandaere's  administration  came  the  first  intimation  to 
the  South  River  colony  of  the  existence  of  the  race  destined  to  be 
come  their  rulers,  and  the  owners  of  their  territory.     The  restless  peo 
ple  of  New  England,  though  hardly  yet  fixed  in  their  own  homes,  had 
already  begun  to  cast  longing  eyes  abroad.      They  had  ruined  the 
Dutch  on  the  Connecticut,  and  they  now  prepared  to  get  a 
share  in  the  trade  and  lands  of  the  Middle  States.     An  expe 
dition  from  New  Haven  sailed  up  the  South  River,  and  founded  two 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  207 

settlements.  Instinctively  aware  that  these  intruders  were  a  com 
mon  foe,  Dutch  and  Swedes  united  and  broke  up  the  English  posts. 
The  confederated  colonies  of  New  England  remonstrated,  and  fresh 
trading  parties  issued  from  Connecticut ;  but  Printz,  who  had  arrived 
in  the  mean  time,  and  built  a  fort,  besides  a  fine  house  for  himself — 
"Printz  Hall"  —  and  founded  a  new  settlement  at  Tinicum,  twelve 
miles  below  Philadelphia,  was  not  the  man  to  stand  such  intrusion. 
The  New  England  ships  were  fired  on,  and  their  crews  imprisoned. 
Again  the  Confederacy  remonstrated,  only  to  be  met  with  a  denial 
of  violence  from  Printz.  Englishmen  were  driven  from  Delaware,  for 
the  time  at  least. 

Printz  was,  however,  as  determined  and  aggressive  toward  the  Dutch 
as  he  had  been  to  the  New  Englanders,  and  his  perpetual  interfer 
ence  with  the  Dutch  at  Fort  Nassau  led  at  last  to  an  open 
breach  between  the  nations.     The  Swedes,  however,  were  in 
the  ascendant,  and  controlled  the  trade  of  the  river.     The  power  of 
the  Dutch  was  at  a  low  point,  and  their  Scandinavian  rivals  threaten 
ed  to  become  the  possessors  of  the  great  regions  of  the  Delaware. 
This  state  of  affairs  lasted  for  some  years,  and  the  only  settlement 
possible  was  by  force  of  arms.      Stuyvesant,  who  succeeded  Kieft, 
was  of  a  very  different  temper  from  his  predecessor,  and  determined 
to  vindicate  Dutch  authority  everywhere ;  so  as  soon  as  he  could  find 
time  from  the  pressing  affairs  of  New  Amsterdam,  he  turned  his  at 
tention  to  the  South  River,  and  built  below  the  Swedish  forts 
Fort  Casimir,  thus  gaining  control  of  navigation,  and  disposing 
effectually  of  foreign  interference.    Printz,  perplexed  by  the  gathering 
difficulties,  and  unpopular  from  his  stern  rule  and  violent  tem 
per,  returned  to  Sweden,  leaving  the  government  with  his  son- 
in-law,  John  Pappegoia.     Soon  after  came  a  Swedish  vessel-of-war, 
commanded  by  John  Rysingh,  who  landed  near  Fort  Casimir,  made 
himself  master  of  the  place,  and  expelled  the  Dutch  without 
bloodshed.     Rysingh  then  assumed  the  government  of  the  col 
ony,  and  set  about  extending  and  consolidating  the  Swedish  power, 
now  in  appearance  stronger  than  ever  before.     But  the  appearance 
was  deceptive  and  short-lived.     Stuyvesant  seized  a  vessel  laden  with 
stores  for  Sweden,  quietly  prepared  an  overwhelming  force  for 
the  reduction  of  the  South  River  settlements,  and  in  early  au 
tumn  sailed  from  New  York  with  an  army  of  six  or  seven  hundred 
men.     Fort  Casimir  capitulated  at  once  at  sight  of  the  Dutch,  and 
Stuyvesant,  marching  on,  compelled  Rysingh  to  surrender  Fort  Chris- 


208  HISTORY  OF  THE 

tina.  The  Swedes  were  outnumbered  and  overawed.  There  was  no 
bloodshed ;  private  property  was  respected,  and  the  inhabitants  were 
merely  required  to  swear  allegiance  to  the  States-General.  Thus  fell 
the  Swedish  empire  in  America.  Holland  was  supreme  upon  the  Del 
aware  and  upon  the  Hudson.  One  of  the  Northern  races  had  been 
conquered,  and  only  two  remained  to  contest  the  dominion  of  the 
continent.  Sweden  complained,  as  Holland  had  done  years  before ; 
but  the  positions  of  the  two  nations  were  now  reversed.  Complaints 
were  not  listened  to  at  the  Hague,  and  Sweden  henceforth  could  do 
no  more  for  her  colonists  than  send  out  faithful  ministers  to  encour 
age  them  in  the  maintenance  of  their  religion. 

A  year  after  the  conquest,  the  West  India  Company  sold  the  Dela 
ware  region  to  the  city  of  Amsterdam.     The  municipality  at 
once  took  possession  of  their  property,  sent  out  a  governor 
and  a  body  of  emigrants,  who,  on  arrival,  named  Fort  Casimir  New 
Amstel,  and  took  possession  of  it,  while  the  Company  retained 
Fort  Christina  and  the  northern  settlement  on  the  Delaware. 
At  first  the  new  colony  planted  by  the  Amsterdam  burghers  flour 
ished  ;  but  sickness  and  bad  crops  came,  and,  despite  fresh  immigra 
tion,  the  new  settlement  had  a  hard  struggle  for  existence.     Harsh 
measures  on  the  part  of  the  city,  suspicion  and  desertion  among  the 
inhabitants,  combined  with  outbursts  of  famine  and  disease,  gave  the 
fertile  region  an  evil  name,  and  brought  New  Amstel  to  a  low  point ; 
while  their  difficulties  were  still  further  aggravated  by  troubles  with 
Maryland.     Boundaries  too  were  sources  of  disturbance,  and  rumors 
came  of  armed  English  invasion.     Stuyvesant  sent  troops,  and  nego 
tiated  successfully ;  but  the  external  pressure  was  a  fresh  cause  of 
alarm,  and  the  new  director,  Hinoyossa,  of  discontent,  while  the 
proposed  retransfer  to  the  Company  gave  good  ground  for  re 
newed  popular  distrust.    Matters  went  on  in  this  way,  with  the  colony 
thriving  at  last,  and  trade  increasing,  but  with  the  director  constantly 
quarrelling  with  the  Company's  agent,  until  at  last  the  whole  South 
River  territory  was  surrendered  to  the   city.     This  needed 
change  had  hardly  been  accomplished,  when  the  whole  fabric  of 
government  was  overthrown  by  the  English.     The  rule  of  the  Dutch 
had  been  sufficiently  uneasy,  but  the  Swedes  were  fully  avenged  when 
Robert  Carr,  one  of  the  royal  commissioners,  appeared  in  the  South 
River  to  complete  the  seizure  of  the  Dutch  possessions  in  the  name 
of  the  Duke  of  York.     The  burghers  and  planters  capitulated  after  a 
brief  delay,  but  the  Governor  and  soldiers  refused  to  assent.     The 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  209 

English  stormed  the  fort ;  a  few  of  the  Dutch  were  slain ;  and  Carr, 
master  of  the  settlements,  proceeded  at  once  to  display  the  mean  cru 
elty  and  greedy  rapacity  which  seemed  inseparable  from  the  rule  of 
Charles  Stuart  and  his  followers. 

The  Swedish  government  roused  for  a  moment  to  revive  its  claim, 
but  it  was  hopeless.  The  Delaware  settlements  gave  way  tranquilly 
to  the  English  rule,  Dutch  and  Swedes  both  prospering  under  their 
new  masters;  and  being  of  a  practical  turn  of  mind,  do  not  appear 
to  have  repined  much  at  their  fate.  After  the  first  brutality  of  Sir 
Robert  Carr,  the  government  went  on  peaceably  enough,  and  the  in 
habitants,  having  at  least  as  much  liberty  as  they  had  been  wont  to 
enjoy  under  the  Company  or  the  city,  were  contented.  One  outbreak 
is  recorded  which  was  headed  by  a  Swede ;  but,  on  the  whole,  Dela 
ware,  as  an  appendage  of  New  York,  prospered  under  English  rule, 
and  the  English  Governor  at  New  York  dealt  so  much  more  effective 
ly  with  the  encroachments  from  Maryland  than  the  Dutch  had  been 
able  to  do,  that  the  agents  of  Lord  Baltimore  were  held  in  check. 
With  the  reconquest  of  New  York  by  the  Dutch,  Delaware  came 
quietly  again  under  the  rule  of  Holland,  and  in  little  more 
1674~  ^an  a  year  was  nanded  back  as  quietly  to  England  by  the 
treaty  of  Westminster.  Thus  fell  the  power  of  the  second 
Northern  race  which  had  contested  the  dominion  of  America  with 
the  English.  Always  an  appendage  of  New  York,  Delaware  had 
passed  from  the  control  of  one  nation  to  that  of  another,  and  her 
whole  history  had  been  made  up  of  these  changes.  Henceforth  the 
ruling  nation  in  Delaware  remained  unaltered,  but  the  colony  went 
on  for  some  years  longer  in  the  old  way  of  shifting  masters.  The 
only  difference  now  was  that  the  contending  rulers  were  all  English. 
The  first  attempt  came  from  the  New  Jersey  settlers,  led  by  Fen- 
wick,  who  landed  and  established  himself  at  Salem,  the  El- 
Jgjg"  singburg  of  the  Swedes.  Andros  objected.  Fenwick  resist 
ed,  but  was  finally  seized  by  the  Duke's  agents  in  Delaware 
and  taken  to  Newcastle,  and  thence  to  New  York.  In  the  following 
year  Fenwick  was  at  Salem,  again  carrying  himself  as  an  inde- 
167SU  pendent  proprietor.  He  was  again  arrested  and  sent  to  New 
York,  and  his  colony  at  Salem  placed  under  the  government 
at  Newcastle.  The  first  Quaker  effort  on  the  Delaware  failed.  The 
second  was  more  successful.  The  great  province  of  Pennsylvania 
was  granted  to  William  Penn,  who  soon  found  that  he  needed  access 
to  the  ocean,  and  rights  sufficient  to  prevent  the  encroachments  of 

14 


210  HISTORY  OF  THE 

his  Maryland  neighbors.     Penn's  influence  prevailed  at  court.     He 
obtained  a  grant  of  all  the  Duke's  interest  within  twelve  miles  of 
Newcastle,  and  as  far  south  as  Cape  Henlopen.     On  his  ar 
rival,  the  Duke's  agents  met  him  at  Newcastle,  when  they  sur 
rendered  to  him  the  South  River  settlements ;  and  thus  Delaware 
was  finally  separated  from  New  York,  passed  under  the  government 
of  Penn,  and  formed  part  of  his  province. 

The  people  received  Penn  with  gladness,  and,  under  his  mild  and 
free  government,  the  condition  of  the  colony  rapidly  improved.  Pop 
ulation  increased,  while  trade  and  agriculture  revived  and  flourished, 
and  the  colonial  history  of  Delaware  was  merged  in  that  of  Pennsyl 
vania. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  211 


CHAPTER  XII. 

PENNSYLVANIA  FROM  1681  TO  1765. 

THE  history  of  the  settlement  of  Pennsylvania  is  closely  interwoven 
with  that  of  the  man  whose  name  was  given  to  the  new  province. 
Into  the  life  of  William  Penn  it  is  not  necessary  to  enter.  The  story 
is  a  familiar  one,  and  has  been  spread  and  maintained  by  the  once 
powerful  sect  of  which  he  was  the  most  eminent  leader.  Penn  was, 
too,  of  all  the  men  who  founded  states  in  America,  the  most  cele 
brated  in  the  mother  country.  He  was  a  very  conspicuous  figure  in 
England  during  the  period  of  the  Restoration  and  the  closing  years 
of  the  seventeenth  century.  Every  one  knows  how  the  son  and  heir 
of  a  wealthy,  worldly,  and  successful  sailor  and  courtier  became  the 
zealous  and  persecuted  leader  of  a  despised  sect;  and  how  his  in 
fluence  and  power  steadily  increased,  until  he  became  the  favorite  and 
adviser  of  James.  His  character  is  a  curious  mingling  of  dissimilar 
qualities.  He  was  at  once  a  saint  and  a  courtier,  a  religious  fanatic 
and  a  shrewd  man  of  affairs  and  of  the  world.  With  the  controver 
sies  awakened  by  Macaulay's  sweeping  charges  we  have  here  nothing 
to  do.  Penn  appears  in  American  history  simply  as  the  wise  foun 
der  of  a  state,  the  prudent  and  just  magistrate,  the  liberal-minded 
law-giver  and  ruler.  His  attention  was  first  drawn  to  colonization  by 
the  misfortunes  of  New  Jersey,  in  which  Quakers  had  become  inter 
ested,  and  in  which  he  himself  finally  took  part  in  hopes  of  ordering 
and  regulating  the  confused  affairs  of  that  province ;  but  he  had,  be 
sides,  two  strong  motives  impelling  him  in  the  same  direction.  He 
had  a  large  inherited  claim  against  the  government,  which  he  could 
only  hope  to  have  paid  in  wild  American  lands;  and  he  was  the 
guide  and  protector  of  a  numerous,  industrious,  and  persecuted  peo 
ple,  admirably  fitted  for  colonization,  and  eager  for  the  peace  denied 
them  in  England. 

At  last,  after  some  difficulty  before  the  Lords  of  Trade,  Penn's  pe 
tition  was  granted,  and  he  received  a  deed  from  the  Crown  of  forty 


212  HISTORY  OF  THE 

thousand  square  miles  of  territory,  which  was  christened  by  the  King 
44  Pennsylvania."  Penn  then  issued  an  address  setting  forth 
his  scheme.  The  government  was  to  be  a  just  and  righteous 
government,  in  conformity  with  Quaker  principles.  It  was  to  be  a 
government  of  law,  and  the  people  were  to  be  a  party  to  it,  while  the 
great  principle  that  governments  depend  upon  men,  not  men  upon 
governments,  was  clearly  and  emphatically  expressed.  Perfect  liberty 
of  conscience  was  guaranteed  to  all.  Capital  punishment  was  to  be 
inflicted  only  for  murder  and  treason ;  and  other  penalties  were  to  be 
imposed  on  the  theory  of  reformation,  and  not  of  retaliation.  Trial 
by  jury  was  assured  not  only  to  white  men  but  to  Indians.  The 
whole  document  was  statesman-like  in  tone,  and  broad  and  liberal  in 
principle.  Penn  offered  land  at  forty  shillings  for  a  hundred  acres, 
subject  only  to  a  small  quit-rent ;  and  even  servants  were  to  be  allowed 
to  hold  fifty  acres  in  fee-simple. 

The  effect  of  these  proposals  was  great  and  immediate.  Quakers 
from  all  parts  of  England  pressed  forward  to  join  the  emigration, 
while  Penn's  fame  drew  other  settlers  from  all  over  Europe,  and  nota 
bly  from  Germany,  where  a  company  was  formed,  under  the  lead  of 
Franz  Pastori us,  which  took  fifteen  thousand  acres.  The  first  year 
three  ships  went  out  filled  with  emigrants,  who  established  themselves 
in  caves  and  huts  on  the  banks  of  the  Delaware.  The  following 
year  Penn  himself,  with  a  company  of  a  hundred,  went  over 
and  landed  at  Newcastle,  where  he  was  heartily  welcomed  by 
his  Dutch  and  Swedish  subjects,  whom  he  naturalized,  and  confirmed 
in  their  property  and  offices.  He  then  proceeded  up  the  river  to 
Chester,  where  the  first  Assembly  of  delegates,  chosen  by  the  com 
missioners  whom  Penn  had  sent  before  him,  was  held,  and  the  gov 
ernment  was  organized.  Acts  of  settlement  and  union  with  the  old 
Delaware  colonies  were  passed,  and  a  body  of  law  adopted  in  con 
formity  with  the  principles  laid  down  in  the  advertisement.  He 
then  put  in  execution  his  Indian  policy,  involving  a  great  departure 
from  that  pursued  in  the  other  colonies.  Under  the  famous  tree  at 
Shackamaxon,  Penn  made  a  treaty  of  peace  with  the  Indians,  win 
ning  their  confidence,  and  obtaining  their  land  by  fair  purchase ;  al 
though,  as  walking  was  the  method  adopted  for  measurement,  the 
trained  English  pedestrians  had  much  the  same  advantage  over  the  In 
dians  that  the  Carthaginians  obtained  by  means  of  the  famous  ox-hide. 
External  relations  being  thus  settled,  Penn  selected  the  broad  peninsula 
between  the  Delaware  and  the  Schuylkill,  and  there  founded  the  city 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  213 

of  Philadelphia.  He  also  ordered  two  handsome  houses  to  be  built 
for  himself — one  in  Philadelphia,  and  one  at  his  manor  of  Pennsbury. 

The  auspicious  beginning  was  followed  by  an  emigration  and  a 
growth  of  population  unequalled,  except  in  Massachusetts,  in  Ameri 
can  colonial  history.  In  one  year  seven  thousand  settlers  are  said  to 
have  arrived;  and  before  the  century  closed  the  colonists  numbered 
more  than  twenty  thousand,  and  Philadelphia  had  grown  to  be  a 
thriving  town.  After  two  busy  years,  in  which  he  had  organized  and 
established  a  government  and  courts  of  justice,  made  firm  alliances 
with  the  Indians,  and  founded  a  city,  Penn  returned  to  Eng 
land.  Everything  had  gone  smoothly  thus  far.  The  charter 
provisions  had  been  modified  to  suit  the  people,  and  the  Assembly 
had  granted  money  to  the  proprietary.  It  seemed  an  opportune 
moment  for  Penn  to  visit  England,  revive  his  influence  at  court,  and 
combat  Lord  Baltimore  on  the  question  of  boundaries.  On  his  de 
parture,  he  left  the  government  in  the  hands  of  Thomas  Lloyd,  presi 
dent,  Colonel  Markham,  secretary,  and  a  Council  composed  of  the 
judges  and  other  provincial  officers. 

Penn  hardly  had  time  to  reach  England  before  the  troubles  com 
mon  to  proprietary  governments  broke  out  in  Pennsylvania.  The 
first  conflict  arose  between  the  ruling  or  Quaker  party  and  some  of 
the  more  prominent  men  who  were  not  of  their  sect.  Nicholas 
Moore,  the  chief-justice,  was  impeached  and  expelled  the  Assembly 
for  violence,  partiality,  and  negligence ;  and  the  clerk  of  the  provin 
cial  court  was  arrested  because  he  refused  to  produce  his  minutes. 
Other  troubles  also  broke  out  in  the  form  of  disorder,  while  immorality 
and  looseness  prevailed  in  the  caves  of  the  Delaware.  The  need  of 
the  proprietary  was  sorely  felt,  and  yet  Penn  found  reason  to  com 
plain  of  the  treatment  he  received ;  for  the  impost  granted  him  was 
imperfectly  collected,  and  the  people  let  the  quit-rents  fall  into  arrears 
and  resisted  payment. 

With  matters  in  this  unsatisfactory  condition,  Thomas  Lloyd  re 
signed  ;  and  Penn,  in  the  hopes  of  quieting  the  province,  appointed 
one  Black  well,  an  outsider  and  stranger,  his  deputy.  Black- 
well  quarrelled  at  once  with  everybody.  He  succeeded  in 
breaking  up  the  Assembly,  and  was  then  involved  in  a  conflict  with 
the  Council.  After  nine  months  of  stormy  and  high-handed  rule, 
he  withdrew,  leaving  the  government  once  more  with  Thomas  Lloyd. 
The  disorders  of  Blackwell's  administration  had,  as  their  chief  re 
sult,  the  production  of  a  new  and  able  popular  leader  in  the  per- 


214  HISTORY  OF  THE 

son  of  David  Lloyd — Perm's  attorney-general.  Blackwell  had  hard 
ly  been  removed  when  a  fresh  contest  arose  between  the  province 
and  the  Delaware  territories,  caused  by  jealousies  in  regard  to  of 
fices  ;  and  after  much  bickering  and  negotiation,  the  union  was 
dissolved.  Lloyd  remained  at  the  head  of  the  province,  and 
Markharn,  as  Lieutenant-governor,  with  a  separate  legislature,  took 
charge  of  Delaware.  Hard  upon  these  political  dissensions  came  re 
ligious  strife.  George  Keith,  an  active,  unscrupulous,  and  violent  zeal 
ot,  brought  about  a  serious  schism  among  the  Quakers,  and  caused  so 
much  irritation  by  his  attacks,  that  the  secular  power  was  called  in, 
and  he  was  arrested  and  thrown  into  prison.  Then  was  heard  the  cry 
of  religions  intolerance  in  the  State  devoted  to  liberty  of  conscience, 
and  complaints  rapidly  found  their  way  to  England.  These  accumu 
lated  troubles  came  upon  Penn  at  an  evil  hour.  He  had  gone  home 
to  rise  to  the  greatest  height  of  favor  and  influence  under  James,  and 
had  been  cast  down  and  covered  with  suspicion  and  dislike  by  the 
Revolution.  In  vain  had  he  striven  to  prevent  the  disunion  of  the 
province  and  the  territories,  to  allay  the  political  bitterness,  and  stifle 
the  schism  in  his  sect.  The  conflict  aroused  by  Keith  had  its  dreaded 
result.  Religious  controversy  and  intolerance  offered  a  sufficient  excuse 
to  rulers  by  whom  Penn  was  regarded  with  disfavor.  The  government 
was  taken  from  him,  and  intrusted  by  royal  commission  to 
a  royal  Governor — Benjamin  Fletcher.  To  Fletcher  the  gov 
ernment  was  surrendered,  at  Philadelphia,  without  resistance ;  and  the 
new  Governor,  without  regard  to  charter  or  laws,  or  to  the  separation 
of  Pennsylvania  and  Delaware,  summoned  a  general  Assembly  from 
both  province  and  territories,  and  a  Council  on  his  own  model,  and 
demanded  assistance  for  the  war  with  France  upon  the  northern  fron 
tiers.  Instead  of  giving  money,  the  Assembly  entered  into  a  contro 
versy  with  Fletcher  as  to  his  powers  and  their  rights  under  the  old 
charter ;  and,  after  a  fruitless  wrangle,  the  new  Governor  returned  to 
New  York,  to  which  he  threatened  to  annex  the  province  of  the  re 
calcitrant  Quakers.  The  next  year  Markham  was  left  as  deputy,  while 
Fletcher  contented  himself  with  sending  letters  asking  for  money  and 
supplies,  which  he  did  not  obtain. 

Meanwhile  Penn  had  gained  a  hearing,  and  a  prompt  acquittal  of 
disloyalty,  and  the  restoration  of  his  government  followed. 
Unable  to  leave  England  at  that  moment,  he  continued  Mark- 
ham  in  the  office  of  deputy.     Markham,  assuming  that  the  old  char 
ter  and  laws  had  been  abrogated  by  the  suspension  of  the  proprietary, 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  215 

convened  the  Assembly  without  regard  to  them.  The  Assembly  had  no 
objection  to  this  theory,  for  they  aimed,  under  the  able  leadership  of 
Lloyd,  to  change  the  frame  of  government  to  suit  themselves ;  and  this, 
after  a  short  struggle  with  Markham,  and  by  voting  money  for 
the  war,  they  effected.  The  Assembly  was  to  sit  on  its  own 
adjournments,  originate  bills,  and  be  indissoluble  during  the  term  for 
which  it  was  elected.  The  Assembly  was  also  to  be  elected  annually, 
the  Council  biennially,  and  all  offices  were  carefully  defined.  The  rest 
of  Markham's  term  was  quiet,  except  for  the  pirates,  who  infested  the 
coast  here  as  elsewhere,  and  received  enough  sympathy  to  bring  the 
province  into  disrepute.  Markham,  supported  by  the  Assembly,  took 
steps  to  remedy  this  evil,  which,  however,  was  destined  for  a  long 
time  to  injure  and  disgrace  the  province. 

As  the  century  closed,  Penn,  freed  at  last  from  affairs  which  had 
kept  him  in  England,  came  out  with  his  family  and  resumed 
control  of  the  province,  where  he  intended  to  pass  the  rest 
of  his  life.  Without  regard  to  the  constitution  already  enacted,  he 
called  the  Assembly  together,  and  took  steps  to  form  a  new  charter 
and  laws,  while  he  also  attempted  to  check  the  slave-trade,  and  suc 
ceeded  in  having  a  law  passed  regulating  the  treatment  and  punishment 
of  the  negroes.  His  Indian  policy,  which  involved  further  restrictions 
on  the  intercourse  of  whites  and  Indians,  and  aimed  also  at  a  spread 
of  the  Gospel  among  the  savages,  met  with  no  support.  The  money 
demanded  by  the  Crown  for  the  war  was  not  given  by  the  Assembly, 
on  account  of  religious  scruples ;  and  in  the  midst  of  his  labors  Penn 
received  news  that  the  policy  of  changing  the  proprietary  to  royal 
governments  was  again  revived.  He  was  obliged,  therefore,  to  push 
through  the  charters  of  Philadelphia  and  Pennsylvania,  which  he  was 
ready  to  grant,  and  which,  in  view  of  his  probable  loss  of  the  province, 
he  was  willing  to  make  liberal.  The  city  charter  was  easily  adopted,  but 
the  Assembly  made  a  contest,  and  tried  to  extort  the  last  possible  con 
cession  from  their  proprietary.  The  government,  as  finally  established, 
differed  but  little  from  that  created  previously  by  the  Assembly,  and 
was  in  accordance  with  the  general  principles  laid  down  in  Penn's 
original  scheme.  All  power  was  vested  in  the  Assembly,  to  whose 
discretion  the  creation  of  courts  was  also  given.  The  Council  was  to 
be  merely  an  advisory  and  executive  body,  and  not  an  upper  house,  and 
the  union  of  the  province  and  territories  was  again  to  be  dissolved  if 
the  people  so  desired,  as  was  probable  from  the  grumbling  and  dis 
content  once  more  apparent  in  Delaware.  When  this  important  work 


216  HISTORY  OF  THE 

was  done,  Penn  sailed  for  England,  never  to  return.     He  left  Andrew 
Hamilton,  of  New  Jersey,  as  his  deputy,  and  James  Logan  as 
secretary.     To  Logan  was  also  confided  the  management  of 
the  proprietary  estates ;  and  the  secretary  thus  became  the  representa 
tive  of  Penn  and  his  family,  the  leader  of  his  party,  and,  as  he  was  a 
shrewd  and  able  man,  the  power  behind  the  throne,  and  the  principal 
person  in  the  province  for  many  years. 

Hamilton's  administration  was  short  and  unfortunate.  He  was  con 
stantly  at  war  with  the  Assembly  and  the  popular  party,  headed  by 
Lloyd ;  and  during  this  time  a  High-Church  or  Crown  party,  small  but 
active,  grew  up  under  the  direction  of  Colonel  Quarry,  the  judge  of 
admiralty.  This  royal  party  delayed  the  confirmation  of  Hamilton, 
and  used  the  failure  of  the  pacific  Quakers  to  provide  for  defence  as 
an  argument  in  England  for  the  destruction  of  the  proprietary  gov 
ernment.  At  the  same  period,  too,  the  territories  again  became  res 
tive,  and  the  province,  which  by  this  time  had  had  enough  of  them, 
shook  them  off,  and  let  them  have  a  legislature  of  their  own,  thus 
finally  severing  the  union. 

In  the  year  1703  Hamilton  died,  and   was   succeeded  by  John 
Evans,  a  young  Welshman,  who  put  himself  wholly  under  Lo 
gan's  direction.     Failing  in  his  first  scheme,  which  was  to  re 
unite  the  province  and  territories,  Evans  at  once  came  to  blows  with 
the  Assembly  on  the  matter  of  prorogation,  which  the  popular  party 
denied  to  the  Governor.     Not  content  with  a  stubborn  opposition  to 
Evans,  the  Assembly  sent  a  memorial  to  Penn,  abusing  him,  and  his 
officers  and  government,  most  violently.     The  forces  were  now  fairly 
engaged,  Lloyd  leading  on  one  side,  Logan  on  the  other ;  the  Assem 
bly  against  the  Council  and  the  officers.     At  first  the  Assembly  pre 
vailed  ;  but  the  memorial  to  Penn  caused  a  reaction,  and  Penn's  reply 
and  strong  support  of  the  Governor  gave  the  victory  at  last  to 
Logan,  whose  party  triumphed  in  the  elections,  and  returned 
a  House  which  devoted  itself  to  passing  necessary  laws.      Evans, 
meantime,  rapidly  lost  the  ground  he  had  gained  by  setting  himself 
against  the  pacific  policy  of  the  Quakers,  and  trying  to  get  support 
for  the  war.     To  arouse  them,  he  caused  a  false  alarm  of  invasion  to 
be  given — a  scheme  in  which  Logan  was  said  to  be  involved, 
and  which  only  resulted  in  profound  disgust,  and  a  return  of 
the  popular  party  to  power  at  the  next  election.     There  was  now  a 
new  and  important  subject  of  dispute  before  them.     The  bill  drawn 
by  Lloyd  to  establish  a  judiciary  had  been  rejected  by  the  privy 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  217 

council  through  proprietary  influence,  and  the  whole  question  was 
again  open.  Evans,  threatening  to  establish  a  judiciary  by  preroga 
tive,  would  come  to  no  terms  with  the  Assembly,  who  were  deter 
mined  the  Council  should  not  be  a  court  of  chancery ;  and  an  in 
terview  between  the  Governor  and  Assembly  led  to  a  personal  quarrel 
with  Lloyd,  who  was  now  back  again  as  Speaker.  The  Assembly, 
baffled  and  angry,  voted  to  impeach  Logan  of  every  misdemeanor  in 
the  calendar.  The  Governor  denied  their  power.  The  Assembly 
then  drew  up  a  remonstrance,  accusing  the  Governor  and  Logan  of 
every  form  of  wrong-doing,  from  excluding  Quakers  from  offices  to 
stopping  the  judiciary  bill,  and  sent  this  remonstrance  to  Penn  and  to 
the  Board  of  Trade.  The  next  Assembly  came  together  in  a  similar 
temper,  and  Evans  again  negatived  the  judiciary  bill,  arid  de 
clared  he  would  do  nothing  until  he  heard  from  the  Board  of 
Trade.  The  affair  had  now  reached  a  dead-lock.  The  Assembly  would 
grant  nothing  to  the  proprietary ;  the  Governor  would  not  establish 
courts.  Pirates  infested  the  Delaware,  and  disgraced  the  colony ;  but 
when  Evans  appealed  for  aid,  the  Assembly,  after  the  manner  of  colo 
nial  legislatures,  refused  to  give  anything,  alleging  the  most  disingenu 
ous  reasons,  and  striving  to  gain  a  political  advantage  from  the  neces 
sities  of  the  State.  The  controversy  had  not  been  helped  by  the  char 
acter  of  Evans,  who  was  loose  in  his  morals,  haughty,  headstrong,  and 
imperious.  Guided  by  Logan,  he  had  made  a  strong  fight;  but 
the  remonstrance  of  the  Assembly  obliged  Penn  to  remove  him, 
and  send  out  Charles  Gookin  as  his  successor. 

The  Assembly  at  once  attacked  the  new  Governor  on  a  number 
of  small  points,  and  refused  to  give  aid  for  the  war,  now  urgent  in 
its  demands ;  and  they  were  still  further  exasperated  by  instructions 
which  forbade  the  Governor  to  act  without  the  assent  of  the 
Council,  or,  as  they  naturally  interpreted  it,  of  Logan.  This  re 
newed  the  war  between  Lloyd  and  the  secretary.  The  latter  ac 
cused  the  former  of  grave  misdemeanors ;  but  as  he  was  unable  to 
sustain  them,  they  were  pronounced  by  the  Assembly  false  and  libel 
lous.  Logan  then  in  a  most  insulting  fashion  asked  them  to  try  him 
on  the  impeachment.  The  Assembly  arrested  him,  and  the  Governor 
released  him.  He  then  sailed  for  England,  and  thus  gave  the  finishing 
stroke  to  the  long  controversy  by  inducing  Penn  to  write  a  letter  re 
proving  the  Assembly,  and  threatening  an  immediate  cession  to 
the  Crown,  which  at  once  brought  the  popular  party  to  terms, 
and  in  the  next  Assembly  everything  went  smoothly.  The  right  to  sit 


218  HISTORY  OF  THE 

on  their  own  adjournment  was  conceded;  the  judiciary  established 
without  a  court  of  equity,  and  the  expenses  of  the  government  were 
cheerfully  voted.  The  following  year  two  thousand  pounds  were  given 
to  the  Crown  in  aid  of  the  war,  and  Gookin's  administration  moved 
easily.  The  government  was  regulated,  and  the  importation  of  slaves 
restrained. 

This  relief  seemed  to  have  come  too  late  for  Penn.    With  his  prov 
ince  mortgaged  and  harassed  by  creditors,  he  decided  to  sell 
his  rights  to  the  Crown  for  twelve  thousand  pounds ;  but  be 
fore  the  sale  was  consummated,  a  stroke  of  apoplexy  enfeebled  his 
mind,  and  put  a  stop  to  business.     The  province  was  relieved  by  the 
failure  of  this  scheme,  for  they  were  attached  to  the  easy  and  simple 
forms  of  the  proprietary  rule,  and  harmony  continued  to  subsist  until 
the  Governor,  irritated  by  constant  irregularity  of  payment, 
quarrelled  with  the  Assembly  about  his  meagre  salary.     Once 
started,  he  rapidly  lost  the  ground  he  had  gained.     He  insisted  that 
the  statutes  should  be  construed  so  as  to  make  all  affirmations  illegal, 
which  tended  to  throw  all  the  legal  and  official  business  of  the  prov 
ince  into  disorder,  for  almost  every  one  of  importance  was  a  Quaker, 
and  it  also  awakened  the  strong  animosity  of  religious  feeling.     Still, 
not  content,  the  Governor,  whose  mind  was  probably  impaired,  pro 
ceeded  to  assail  Norris,  the  Speaker  of  the  Assembly,  and  Logan,  the 
two  chief  men  of  the  province.     This  produced  an  organized 
movement  for  his  recall,  which  was  effectual,  and  Sir  William 
Keith  came  out  as  his  successor.     The  new  Governor  was  hardly  es 
tablished  when  the  distinguished  man  who  had  founded  the 
colony  died ;  but  his  death  made  no  change  in  the  condition 
of  his  province,  which  passed,  after  a  protracted  lawsuit,  to  the  chil 
dren  of  his  second  wife. 

Sir  William  Keith,  who  came  to  the  head  of  affairs  just  as  the 
great  Quaker  was  passing  away,  had  been  surveyor  of  the  customs 
for  the  southern  provinces,  and  was  familiar  with  the  affairs  of  Penn 
sylvania.  He  was  an  adroit  man,  insincere,  and  with  a  good  deal  of 
the  demagogue  in  his  disposition.  He  succeeded  in  obtaining  the 
confidence  of  the  people,  put  himself  at  the  head  of  the  popular  par 
ty,  and,  by  conceding  everything  desired  by  the  Assembly,  he  raised 
his  own  influence  to  such  a  point  that  he  gained  all  he  wished  for 
himself.  He  freed  himself  from  the  control  of  the  Council,  for  which 
there  was  no  constitutional  ground,  and  thus  shackled  Logan,  who, 
however,  remained  quietly  at  his  post  as  secretary,  and  bided  his  time. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  219 

Keith  also  succeeded  in  establishing  the  obnoxious  court  of  equity, 
with  himself  as  chancellor.  His  Indian  policy  was  wise  and  success 
ful,  and  preserved  the  peace  of  the  province ;  but  his  financial  policy, 
when  the  fiscal  affairs  were  in  a  very  tangled  state,  was,  though  popu 
lar,  thoroughly  bad.  He  introduced  and  carried  through  the 
issue  of  bills  of  credit,  saddling  Pennsylvania  with  the  curse 
of  a  depreciated  paper  currency.  The  same  year  there  came  to  Phil 
adelphia  a  young  man  who  soon  became  and  continued  the  central 
figure  in  Pennsylvanian  provincial  history.  This  was  Benjamin 
Franklin,  who  was  almost  immediately  brought  in  contact  with  the 
Governor.  The  story  of  their  connection  is  familiar,  and  Keith  has 
the  almost  unique  honor  of  having  overreached  and  deceived  Franklin. 
Misled  by  the  strength  of  his  position,  Keith,  in  the  midst  of  his 
successes,  determined  to  rid  himself  of  his  enemies,  and  on  very  slight 
provocation  removed  Logan  from  the  Council  and  the  office  of  secre 
tary.  This  was  the  false  step  for  which  Logan  had  waited.  He  at 
once  sailed  for  England,  and  his  journey  soon  bore  fruit  in  letters 
from  Hannah  Penn  and  the  Trustees,  accusing  Keith  of  neglect  of  the 
proprietary  interest  and  disregard  of  the  Council,  and  reproving  him 
severely  for  his  issue  of  paper-money.  Keith  replied,  asserting  his  right 
to  act  independently,  and  indiscreetly  laid  Mrs.  Penn's  letter  before  the 
Assembly,  who  still  had  great  regard  for  the  wishes  of  the  proprietary. 
Lloyd,  now  chief -justice,  roused  at  the  new  controversy,  and  easily 
overthrew  Logan's  argument  in  favor  of  the  powers  of  the  Council ; 
but  neither  he  nor  Keith  could  destroy  Logan's  influence  in  England, 
by  which  the  latter  was  removed,  and  replaced  by  Patrick  Gordon, 
who,  having  been  appointed  by  the  family,  and  confirmed,  came  out 
the  following  year  and  took  possession  of  the  government. 
Keith,  after  his  deposition,  entered  the  Assembly,  and  strove 
to  oppose  and  break  down  the  new  Governor ;  but  his  influence  and 
popularity  rapidly  waned,  and  he  soon  after  disappears  from  the  his 
tory  of  the  province. 

Gordon's  administration  partook  of  the  uneventfulness  character 
istic  of  the  Walpole  period  in  England.     The  Governor  and  the  As 
sembly  got  on  very  well  together,  and  without  any  serious  dissen 
sions.      The  court  of  equity  erected  by  Keith  was  abolished,  and 
Pennsylvania  plunged  still  deeper  into  the  ruin  of  depreciated  and 
popular  paper-money  by  an  additional  issue  of  thirty  thousand 
pounds.     Trade  flourished,  and  population  increased  rapidly, 
especially  the  German  immigration,  which  was  so  large  as  to  cause 


220  HISTORY  OF  THE 

serious  alarm  both  in  the  province  and  England ;  but  the  Germans 
proved,  as  a  rule,  excellent  citizens.  This  growing  population,  how 
ever,  pushing  out  on  the  frontier,  came  in  contact  with  the  Indians, 
and  there  was  from  time  to  time  a  fear  of  Indian  war.  During  this 
period,  too,  we  first  perceive  in  Pennsylvania  a  vague  anxiety  in  re 
gard  to  the  spread  of  the  French  power,  which  began  to  cast  its  shad 
ow,  dark  with  savage  war,  over  the  future  of  the  colonies.  There  was 
also  a  moment  of  brief  suspicion  and  dread  of  the  Roman  Catholics, 
and  some  agitation  against  them ;  but  in  the  land  of  religious  tolera 
tion  nothing  was  done,  and  the  only  break  in  the  quiet  of  the  time 
was  a  bitter  and  rather  turbulent  contest  with  Maryland  on  the  mat 
ter  of  boundaries. 

After  a  peaceful  administration  of  ten  years,  Governor  Gordon  died, 
and  was  succeeded  by  James  Logan,  who,  as  President  of  the 
Council,  ruled  the  province  in  which  he  had  so  long  been  the 
master-spirit  for  two  uneventful  years,  when  he  was  superseded  by 
George  Thomas,  a  planter  of  Antigua,  who  was  sent  out  as  Governor. 
Soon  after  the  arrival  of  Thomas,  the  Maryland  dispute  was 
finally  settled,  leaving  Delaware  intact,  and  arranging  the  oth 
er  differences  on  the  general  theory  of  uti  possidetis.     The  new  Gov 
ernor  had  some  trouble  at  the  outset  in  regard  to  issuing  warrants 
for  proprietary  lands,  which  had  been  suspended  during  the  minority 
of  the  Penn  heirs,  and  was  revived  with  considerable  opposition,  es 
pecially  from  those  who,  during  the  interval,  had  taken  up  lands  with 
out  the  formality  of  a  warrant.     With  this  exception,  everything 
promised  to  proceed  as  harmoniously  as  under  the  previous  Govern 
or  ;  but  these  pleasant  appearances  were,  unfortunately,  soon  dissipated 
by  the  war  between   Spain   and  England.     Thomas,  instead 
of  using  a  little  management,  attempted  to  argue  down  the 
Quaker  principles  in  regard  to  fighting,  and  the  Assembly,  nettled  at 
the  attack,  refused  supplies.     The  next  year  came  peremptory  de 
mands  from  England,  and  great  pressure,  not  only  from  the  proprie 
taries,  but  from  a  portion  of  the  people.     Thus  pushed,  the  Assem 
bly,  after  much  delay,  granted  money,  but  under  such  conditions  as 
to  almost  nullify  their  action.      They  based  their  renewed  opposi 
tion  on  the  fact  that  the  Governor,  in  raising  militia,  had,  by  enlisting 
bond-servants,  invaded  the  rights  of  property ;  and  supported  by  the 
people,  although  the  merchants  remonstrated,  the  Assembly  continued 
to  thwart  and  oppose  every  measure  of  the  Governor  for  the  defence 
of  the  province,  and  in  aid  of  the  Crown,  while  they  put  the  usual 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  221 

pressure  on  the  Governor  by  withholding  his  salary.     The  Quakei 
party  was  less  strong  than  in  the  early  days,  and  that  of  the  Gov 
ernor  more  vigorous,  and  better  supported   by  the  wealthy  inhab 
itants,  especially  in  Philadelphia.     The  conflict  became  excited  and 
bitter,  and  at  last  resulted  in  a  violent  election  riot  in  Philadelphia, 
in  which  the  forces  of  the  Governor  were  routed.     This  led  to  fresh 
quarrels ;  and  finally  the  Governor,  harassed  by  lack  of  salary,  made 
advances  of  a  conciliatory  nature,  gave  way  as  to  certain  bills,  and 
was  paid  in  full.     There  had  been  no  difficulty  in  raising  men,  but 
the  narrow  and  selfish  policy  of  the  Assembly  had  reduced  Pennsyl 
vania  to  insignificance,  impotence,  and  unpopularity  during  the  war. 
When  war  with  France  was  added  to  the  existing  complications, 
Thomas  again  went  actively  to  work  to  raise  men  ;  and  as  he 
was  powerfully  aided  by  Franklin,  and  supported  by  Logan, 
the  Quaker  Assembly  were  obliged  to  content  themselves  with  mere 
apathy.     Volunteers  were  enrolled,  and  a  fort  was  built  by  means 
of  a  lottery ;   but  the  Assembly,  uninfluenced  by  all  this,  refused, 
on  one  frivolous  excuse  and  another,  to  take  any  part  in  the  Louis- 
burg  expedition,  and  were  only  forced  by  royal  command  at  the  last 
moment  to  grudgingly  give  money  for  supplies.     Thus,  by  their  con 
tinued  selfishness,  they  lost  all  share  in  the  glory  won  by  the  provin 
cials  in  the  capture  of  Louisburg.     They  took  no  part,  either,  in  the 
subsequent  Canada  expedition   which   was  attempted  by  the  other 
colonies,  and  the  only  gain  made  by  the  province  was  through  the 
troops  raised  by  Thomas,  which  enabled  him   to  carry  out  a  firm 
Indian  policy,  and  prevent  a  border  war.     Soon  after  these  events, 
Thomas  resigned,  and   was   succeeded  by  Anthony  Palmer, 
President  of  the  Council,  who  persisted  successfully  in  main 
taining  and  renewing  the  Indian  treaties,  withdrawing  the  tribes  from 
French  influence,  and  thus  held  them  in  check  until  peace  was 
declared.     The  quarrels  between  the  Council  and  the  Assem 
bly  continued  undiminished  on  the  subject  of  the  ravages  of  the  de 
fenceless  coasts  and  shipping  by  privateers,  and  the  efforts  of  the 
executive  to  ward  off  these  attacks. 

A  new  Governor,  James  Hamilton,  the  son  of  Andrew  Hamil 
ton,  the  eminent  lawyer  and  Speaker  of  the  House,  found  that  he 
had  inherited  not  only  the  dignities  and  duties,  but  the  quarrels,  of 
his  predecessors.  The  peace  of  Aix-la-Chapelle  did  not  stop  the 
extension  of  French  influence,  nor  check  the  dangerous  schemes  of 
that  power.  The  policy  of  making  treaties  with  the  Indians  and 


222  HISTORY  OF  THE 

holding  them  to  their  alliance  had  to  be  persevered  in  closely ;  and 
this  policy  had  now  become  a  heavy  burden  to  the  State.  This  bur 
den  the  Assembly  justly  felt  ought  to  be  shared  by  the  proprietaries, 
whose  wild  lands  were  more  benefited  by  peace  than  those  of  any  oth 
ers,  and  they  therefore  demanded  that  the  proprietary  estates  should 
be  taxed.  The  proprietaries  replied  feebly  and  offensively,  and  the 
Assembly  had  much  the  better  of  the  argument.  They  had,  too,  the 
advantage  of  a  great  leader  in  the  person  of  Franklin,  who 
from  being  clerk  had  become  a  member  of  the  Assembly,  and 
who  managed  the  whole  of  the  discussion.  The  first  encounter  was 
without  result ;  but  the  controversy  was  destined  to  grow,  and  to  last 
many  years. 

Under  the  lead  of  Franklin,  too,  they  entered  upon  another  conflict, 
in  which  they  were  as  much  in  the  wrong  as  they  had  been  in  the 
right  in  the  matter  of  the  proprietary  estates.  Money  was  scarce,  and 
the  Assembly  wished  to  issue  more  depreciated  paper.  The  Governor 
wisely  and  firmly  opposed  this  scheme,  although  he  attempted  a  com 
promise  by  fixing  means  of  redemption,  and  by  referring  to  the  Crown. 
Both  proposals  were  rejected.  The  real  secret  of  the  difference  was 
that  the  Governor  was  required  to  keep  all  the  interest  of  loans 
within  the  control  of  the  proprietaries,  and  forbidden  to  countenance 
issues  of  paper.  The  outbreak  of  war  and  the  defeat  of 
Washington  on  the  frontier  made  the  need  of  money  impera 
tive.  The  Assembly  voted  thirty -five  thousand  pounds,  fifteen  of 
which  were  for  the  use  of  the  King  in  bills  of  credit ;  but  the  Gov 
ernor  still  refused  to  assent,  and  soon  after  gave  up  his  office,  which 
he  had  resigned  some  time  before. 

He  was  succeeded  by  Robert  Hunter  Morris,  son  of  Lewis  Morris,  of 
New  Jersey,  who  brought  urgent  instructions  that  Pennsylvania  should 
unite  with  the  other  colonies  and  contribute  to  the  war.  The  result 
was  a  vote  of  forty  thousand  pounds  in  bills  of  credit,  twenty  thou 
sand  being  intended  for  the  Crown.  The  Governor  demanded  that 
they  should  be  made  redeemable  in  five  years.  The  Assembly  refused  ; 
and  a  dispute  began  which  lasted  for  two  years,  and  utterly  crippled 
the  province.  As  the  bitter,  useless  quarrel  progressed,  Braddock 
could  get  no  assistance  except  from  the  personal  exertions  of  Frank 
lin,  and  then  went  to  defeat  and  death  on  the  frontier.  The  rout 
of  Braddock  laid  the  whole  border  bare  to  the  wasting  and  cruel 
ravages  of  the  Indians.  In  vain  did  the  cry  of  distress  go  up  from 
the  hunted  people  of  the  interior;  the  wrangle  at  Philadelphia  still 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  223 

went  on.  The  Assembly  receded  from  its  first  position,  and  took 
up  their  opposition  on  the  ground  that  the  proprietary  estates  ought 
to  be  taxed ;  and  at  this  point  another  dead-lock  ensued.  Gradually 
the  terrible  distress  of  the  province  forced  them  to  dole  out  money 
to  help  Massachusetts  and  the  other  eastern  and  northern  colonies. 
Under  great  pressure  they  passed  a  volunteer  militia. bill,  and,  inade 
quate  as  this  was,  Franklin  succeeded  in  bringing  about  the  enlist 
ment  of  a  considerable  number  of  troops,  and,  although  he  was  no  sol 
dier,  went  at  their  head  to  the  interior,  producing  a  good  effect  upon 
the  Indian  tribes.  The  Governor,  from  time  to  time,  extorted  a  little 
money  ;  but  his  salary  remained  unpaid.  The  Indians  were  again 
on  the  frontier,  carrying  war  in  all  directions ;  and  again  came  a 
dead-lock  on  the  proprietary  estates.  The  controversy  was 
about  to  be  renewed  in  all  its  senseless  stages,  when  Morris 
was  superseded  by  Governor  Denny. 

The  new  Governor  was  received  with  great  joy,  which  speedily 
cooled  when  it  was  found  that  he  could  not  assent  to  any  bill  which 
did  not  give  him  a  share  in  disposing  of  any  issue  of  bills  or  money 
raised  by  revenue ;  that  he  could  not  permit  tlie  issue  of  more  than 
forty  thousand  pounds  in  bills;  and  that  he  was  only  to  allow  a  par 
tial  taxation  of  the  proprietary  estates.  The  struggle  was  at  once  re 
newed  over  a  bill  to  lay  an  excise ;  and  the  position  of  the  Assembly 
was  defended  with  acute  ability  by  Franklin.  Meantime,  of  course, 
devastation  proceeded ;  and,  urged  by  commands  from  England,  pro 
vincial  troops  were  raised,  but  with  no  supplies.  An  expedition,  plan 
ned  by  Morris  and  led  by  Armstrong,  inflicted  a  severe  defeat  upon 
the  Indians  at  Kittanning,  and  was  the  first  gleam  of  light  in  the  dark 
ness  of  the  time.  Stimulated  by  this  success,  the  Assembly  granted 
one  hundred  thousand  pounds,  and,  giving  way  on  the  proprietary 
estates,  sent  Franklin  and  Norris  to  England  to  lay  their  grievances 
before  the  King.  Matters,  however,  did  not  mend.  Everything  sank 
beneath  the  imbecile  rule  of  London,  in  command  of  all  the  coloni 
al  forces,  and  affairs  went  from  bad  to  worse,  until  the  victo 
ries  of  Montcalm  roused  even  Pennsylvania  to  authorize  troops 
for  the  protection  of  the  frontier.  Yet  even  at  this  moment  of  gen 
eral  danger,  the  Assembly. and  the  Governor  took  occasion  to  have 
another  quarrel  over  a  judge,  attacked  by  the  former  and  protected 
by  the  latter.  The  strength  of  the  Assembly  in  all  this  weary  con 
test  rested  on  the  Quaker  and  German  voters,  who  were  utterly  op 
posed  to  taxes  and  war. 


224  HISTORY  OF  THE 

At  last  even  Pennsylvania  was  aroused  by  the  ringing,  commanding 
voice  of  the  "  Great  Commoner."  Loudoun  and  the  rest  disap 
peared.  New  men  came  out  full  of  energy  and  vigor,  and  the 
letters  of  Pitt  brought  the  Assembly  to  a  sense  of  the  needs  of  the 
time.  The  Governor,  foreseeing  the  result  of  Franklin's  mission,  of 
fered  to  have  the  proprietary  estates  taxed,  by  special  assessors ;  but 
the  Assembly  disdained  the  compromise,  and  voted  one  hundred  thou 
sand  pounds,  without  including  the  proprietaries.  A  quarrel,  of  course, 
broke  out,  and  went  on  between  the  commissioners  of  the  Assembly 
and  the  Governor;  but  this  time  men  and  money  were  forthcoming, 
and  the  province  appeared  to  better  advantage  than  before.  Fort 
.  Du  Quesne  was  taken,  the  border  of  Pennsylvania  was  safe,  Indi 
an  treaties  were  once  more  successfully  negotiated,  and  the 
next  year  came  the  succession  of  victories  in  tho  North,  and 
the  overthrow  of  the  French  power  in  America.  In  the  mean  time 
Franklin  had  been  fighting  adroitly  and  forcibly  the  battle  of  the  As 
sembly  in  England.  The  proprietaries  addressed  a  long  letter  to  the 
Assembly,  who  refused  to  recede,  and  the  Governor  at  last  gave  way, 
and  assented  to  a  bill  taxing  the  proprietary  estates.  This  bill  the 
proprietaries  carried  to  the  Privy  Council,  and,  after  a  sharp  contest, 
it  received  the  royal  approbation  on  the  engagement  of  Franklin  that 
the  Governor  should  have  a  share  in  the  disposal  of  the  funds,  and 
that  the  quit-rents  should  not  be  paid  in  bills  of  credit.  Thus  the 
Assembly  finally  carried  their  point ;  but  in  the  conflict  they  had  sac 
rificed  the  honor  and  welfare  of  the  province  during  a  long  and  try 
ing  war.  They  took  advantage  of  war  and  danger  to  defeat  the  gov 
ernment;  and  although,  with  the  exception  of  their  paper -money 
schemes,  and  their  refusal  to  provide  for  redemption,  they  were  right 
in  principle,  their  conduct  was  narrow,  selfish,  and  unpatriotic.  They 
put  the  safety  of  the  country  in  peril  to  carry  a  political  point,  and 
hamper  the  executive.  The  controversy  should  have  been  postponed, 
for  the  end  did  not  justify  the  means. 

Governor  Denny  obtained  his  salary  by  finally  assenting  to  the 
money  bills ;  but  he  lost  the  favor  of  the  proprietaries,  and  was  re 
placed  by  James  Hamilton,  the  former  Governor,  who  was  reappointed. 
The  Canadian  victories,  meanwhile,  relieved  the  middle  colonies  of  all 
dangers ;  the  forces  of  Pennsylvania  were  disbanded ;  and  the  Assembly 
undertook,  despite  Franklin's  engagement,  to  retain  the  dispos 
al  of  the  funds  granted  by  Parliament.     The  old  contest  was 
thus  renewed,  and  when  a  requisition  came  from  the  Crown  to  main- 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  225 

tain  two-thirds  of  the  troops  on  a  war  footing,  the  Assembly  flatly 
refused ;  and,  in  their  quarrel  with  the  Governor,  all  the  supply  bills 
fell  to  the  ground.  The  war  with  Spain  brought  a  return  of  reason, 
however,  and  the  parliamentary  allotment  of  1759  was  devoted  to  the 
defences  of  Philadelphia.  From  this  new  strain  they  were  soon  re 
lieved  by  the  peace ;  but  their  relief  was  of  short  duration.  A 
desolating  Indian  war  broke  out;  the  settlements  were  again 
driven  back,  and  the  frontier  forts  were  in  danger.  Individual  citi 
zens  came  forward  with  money ;  but  the  everlasting  conflict  between 
the  Governor  and  Assembly  rendered  the  government  impotent. 
Fortunately  for  the  people,  Colonel  Bouquet,  with  the  royal  troops, 
defeated  the  Indians  by  great  skill  and  bravery,  and  restored  safety  to 
the  province ;  but  his  victory  was  followed  by  a  rising  of  the  people, 
and  the  wanton  massacre  of  large  bodies  of  friendly  Indians 
at  Lancaster  and  Paxton.  This  was  the  natural  outcome  of 
the  senseless  struggle  for  power,  in  a  time  of  war,  between  Governor 
and  Assembly.  The  insurgents  marched  on  Philadelphia,  where  the 
Assembly  passed  a  riot  act,  and  the  Governor  helplessly  lost  his  head. 
The  exertions  of  Franklin,  and  the  spirited  conduct  of  the  people  of 
Philadelphia,  alone  saved  the  province,  and  put  an  end  to  this  wretch 
ed  business  of  massacre  and  insurrection. 

While  the  Indian  war  was  still  fitfully  raging  on  the  frontier,  John 
Penn,  one  of  the  proprietaries,  came  out  as  the  successor  of  Hamil 
ton.  After  another  struggle  and  much  remonstrance,  the  Assembly 
granted  money,  and  then  started  a  movement  to  separate  the  govern 
ment  and  the  proprietary  estates,  or,  in  other  words,  to  obtain  a  royal 
government  for  Pennsylvania.  Petitions  for  the  change  poured  in, 
and  were  sent  to  the  English  agent,  with  orders  to  push  the  business. 
The  next  election,  after  a  sharp  contest,  left  the  power  in  the  hands 
of  those  who  favored  a  change,  and  who  were  led  by  Franklin 
and  Galloway,  and  opposed  by  Dickinson  ;  but  while  this  was 
pending,  a  much  graver  question  came  before  all  the  colonies,  and  ab 
sorbed  the  attention  of  every  one.  The  little  matter  of  taxing  pro 
prietary  estates  was  forgotten  in  the  plan  of  the  British  ministry  to 
tax  the  colonies.  The  Assembly  instructed  their  agent,  Mr.  Mauduit, 
to  ask  a  repeal  of  the  Sugar  Act,  and  oppose  taxation ;  and  they  fol 
lowed  this  up  by  sending  Franklin  again  to  England  to  represent 
them.  The  circular  of  Massachusetts  was  not  laid  before  the  Assem 
bly,  but  as  many  members  as  could  be  brought  together  were  sum 
moned,  and  a  committee  was  chosen.  The  opposition  to  the  Stamp 

15 


226  HISTORY  OF  THE 

Act  was  universal  and  deep-seated.     John  Hughes,  the  collector,  was 
forced  to  sign  a  pledge  that  he  would  not  execute  his  office,  and  the 
stamps  were  not  allowed  to  be  landed,  and  were  not  used.    When  the 
Stamp  Act  Congress  met  in  New  York,  the  Pennsylvania  com 
mittee  was  among  the  delegates,  and  the  history  of  Pennsyl 
vania  becomes  part  of  that  of  the  United  Colonies, 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  227 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

PENNSYLVANIA  AND  DELAWARE,  1765. 

THH  social  atmosphere  changes  completely  as  we  pass  from  Mary 
land — the  last  of  the  southern  group — into  Delaware  and  Pennsylva 
nia.  These  two  provinces  may  be  treated  together  \  for  their  practi« 
cal  union  under  one  government,  and  the  circumstances  of  their  settle- 
ment,  had  effaced  any  distinctions  that  might  otherwise  have  existed. 
The  oldev  and  smaller  colony  was  a  mere  strip  of  land  at  the  mouth 
of  the  noble  river  from  which  it  takes  its  name,  while  the  great  prov 
ince  of  Pennsylvania,  alone  among  the  thirteen  colonies,  had  no  coast, 
and  only  indirect  communication  with  the  ocean.  On  the  eastern  boun 
dary  the  rich  farming  land  began,  and  stretched  away  —  rolling  and 
broken,  but  always  fertile — until  the  region  rich  in  hidden  iron  and 
coal,  and,  finally,  the  steep  slopes  of  the  Alleghany  range,  were  reach 
ed.  The  climate  typified  the  geographical  and  political  position  of 
the  middle  colonies.  It  was  temperate  in  the  main,  but  displayed 
the  extremes  of  both  heat  and  cold,  characteristic  of  the  southern 
and  northern  groups ;  and,  as  Penn  said,  the  "  weather  often  changeth 
without  notice,  and  is  constant  almost  in  its  inconstancy."1 

Bancroft  estimates  the  population  of  the  two  colonies  possessing 
this  large  and  rich  territory  at  one  hundred  and  ninety-five  thousand 
in  the  year  I755.a  At  the  time  of  the  Revolution  it  had  increased 
probably  to  more  than  four  hundred  thousand,  of  whom  one-quarter 
to  a  third  were  negroes.3  The  first-comers  in  this  large  and  rapidly- 

1  Watson's  Annals  of  Philadelphia,  ii.,  1683.  2  Bancroft,  iv.,  129. 

3  The  contemporary  estimates  are,  as  usual,  very  wild,  and  differ  hopelessly : 
Board  of  Trade,  1755—220,000,  see  Bancroft,  iv.,  129,  note;  Smyth,  ii.,  309— 
320,000,  one -third  blacks;  Brissot,  p.  279,  Payers  of  Capitation  tax,  1760— 
31,000;  1770—39,000;  1779—45,000;  1786—66,000;  Burnaby,  p.  80, 400,000  to 
500,000,  one-fifth  Quakers,  few  negroes ;  Watson's  Annals,  ii.,  Franklin's  esti 
mate,  1766 — 160,000  whites, one-third  Quakers,  one-third  Germans;  Etat  Present 
de  la  Pennsylvanie,  1756—250,000  whites ;  Colonial  Records,  vii.,  448,  Peters's 
estimate,  200,000,  one-eighth  Quakers ;  Hazard,  Pennsylvania  Archives,  1773 — 
300,000  whites,  200,000  blacks. 


228  HISTORY  OF  THE 

growing  community  were  the  Swedes,  a  simple,  agricultural  people, 
peaceable  alike  with  Dutch,  English,  and  Indians.  At  the  close  of 
the  seventeenth  century  they  were  still  numerous  and  powerful  in  the 
Delaware  settlements,  and  retained  their  mother  tongue ;  but  after 
that  time  they  were  rapidly  absorbed  by  the  new  population  which 
surrounded  them,  and,  unaided  by  fresh  arrivals,  lost  their  distinctive 
qualities.  They  were  a  strong,  sturdy  race,  and  a  valuable  element 
among  the  people.1  The  Dutch,  who  superseded  them,  left  but  few 
settlers  to  survive  the  rush  of  English  immigration,  which,  begun 
by  the  Quakers,  consisted  almost  exclusively  of  families  drawn  from 
the  middle  classes  of  tradesmen,  shopkeepers,  and  small  farmers,  with 
an  infusion,  by  no  means  trifling,  of  convicts,  indented  servants,  and 
wandering  adventurers.  Many  Welsh  also  came  to  Pennsylvania,  and 
seem  to  have  been  a  valuable  addition.  The  two  foreign  elements, 
however,  which  together  outnumbered  the  English,  and  gave  to  Penn 
sylvania  a  character  wholly  different  from  that  of  any  other  colony, 
were  the  Germans  and  Irish.  The  former  began  to  come  immedi 
ately  upon  the  foundation  of  the  colony,  and  settled  at  Germantown. 
These  first-comers  were  drawn  thither  on  account  of  religion,  and  in 
cluded  Quakers  and  Palatines,  and,  later,  Ridge  Hermits,  Dunkards, 
Mennonists,  and  Pietists.  Afterward  the  immigration  thus  started 
grew  from  natural  causes,  until,  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution,  they 
formed  nearly  a  third  of  the  population,  and  occupied  exclusively 
large  districts  of  western  Pennsylvania.  They  were  chiefly  farmers, 
thrifty,  saving,  and  industrious,  but  stubborn,  ignorant,  and  unrelia 
ble  in  times  of  war.  Their  numerical  importance  is  shown  by  the 
effect  they  had  upon  the  language,  producing  a  well-defined  dialect 
known  familiarly  as  Pennsylvania  Dutch.  The  Irish  immigration  be 
gan  in  the  year  1719,  and  assumed  such  large  proportions  as  to  de 
mand  legislation  ten  years  later.  A  large  part  of  these  settlers  were 
Scotch -Irish  Presbyterians,  valuable  and  good  colonists;  but  there 
were  also  many  others  of  Irish  race,  who  were,  as  a  rule,  a  very  unde 
sirable  addition  at  that  period.  Scarcely  more  than  a  third  of  the  lat 
ter  succeeded  as  farmers ;  and  they  were  a  hard-drinking,  idle,  quarrel 
some,  and  disorderly  class,  always  at  odds  with  the  government,  and 
did  much  to  give  to  that  government  and  to  politics  the  character  for 
weakness  aud  turbulence,  which,  beginning  before  the  Revolution,  has 
broken  out  at  intervals  down  to  the  present  day.  This  brief  outline 

1  Pennsylvania  Hist.  Coll.,  in.,  Holme's  History. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  229 

of  the  population  shows  the  great  mixture  of  races,  and  in  a  rough 
way  the  qualities  of  the  principal  elements,  which  had  a  marked  ef 
fect  upon  the  society  of  the  colony  and  the  later  history  of  the  State.1. 
The  people  of  Pennsylvania  and  Delaware  relied  chiefly  upon  agri 
culture  for  support,  and  the  great  mass  of  them  were  tillers  and  culti 
vators  of  the  soil.  But  there  were  many  merchants  and  tradesmen  as 
well,  besides  shopkeepers  and  mechanics.  The  radical  difference  be 
tween  the  middle  and  southern  colonies  is  nowhere  better  shown  than 
in  the  economical  contrast.  The  single  staple  of  Virginia  was  here  re 
placed  by  varied  products,  and  the  commerce  of  Pennsylvania  was  a 
fruitful  source  of  wealth.  The  exports  and  imports  were  worth  at  the 
period  of  the  Revolution  more  than  a  million  pounds ;  and  trade,  legal 
and  illicit,  extending  not  only  to  England,  but  to  Lisbon,  Madeira,  and 
the  West  Indies,  employed  nearly  five  hundred  vessels  and  over  seven 
thousand  seamen.2  The  exports  embraced  many  natural  products. 
Penn  had  at  an  early  day  set  his  face  against  the  cultivation  of  to 
bacco,  and  although  some  was  grown  in  the  more  southern  districts, 
the  great  Virginian  staple  was  superseded.  The  principal  exports 
were  grain  and  flour;  but  timber  and  every  kind  of  farm  produce 
were  sold  in  large  quantities,  and  there  was  an  extensive  arid  valuable 
fur  trade,  founded  by  Penn  himself.  The  imports,  besides  wines  and 
sugar,  consisted,  of  course,  mainly  of  manufactured  articles.  There 
could  hardly  be  said  to  be  any  manufactures  as  yet  in  Pennsylvania ; 
but  the  germs  were  there,  and  the  first  experiments  were  in  progress ; 
the  coarser  articles  were  made  in  considerable  quantities,  and  these 
indications,  as  well  as  the  mining  industries,  clearly  showed  the  bent 
of  the  people.  Saw-mills  and  grist-mills  were  numerous,  and  em 
ployed,  not  only  by  the  Pennsylvanians,  but  by  their  less  enterprising 
neighbors  of  the  south;  and  ships  were  built  at  the  Philadelphia 
docks,  and  used  by  the  traders  of  the  province.  As  early  as  the  end 
of  the  seventeenth  century  the  manufacture  of  paper  and  of  glass 
was  tried  by  the  Germans  at  Germantown  and  Mannheim,  as  well  as 

1  Michaux's  Travels,  p.  31 ;  Smyth's  Tour,  ii.,  279,  309 ;  Brissot,  p.  290 ;  Kalm, 
i.,  58,  216  ;  Foote,  Sketches  of  Virginia,  i.,  99  ;  Watson's  Annals,  ii. ;  Crevecoeur, 
p.  48,  and  in  regard  to  Irish,  p.  78  ;  Coll.  Hist.  Soc.,  v.,  Braddock's  Exped.,  Sargent, 
Convicts,  etc. 

2  Smyth,  ii.,  307 ;   Wallace,  Inaugural  Address  to  Hist.  Soc.,  1872 ;   Watson's 
Annals  of  Philadelphia,  ii. ;  Etat  Present  de  la  Pennsylvanie ;  Huguenot  Family  in 
Virginia,  p.  30 ;  Burnaby,  p.  80 ;  Colonial  Rec.,  i.,  1697 ;   Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  ix.,  1702, 
Customs  on  goods  from  Pennsylvania. 


230  HISTORY  OF  THE 

that  of  druggets,  crapes,  and  stockings,  the  last  forming  a  thriving  and 
profitable  industry.  Some  of  the  Irish  made  linen  of  good  quality, 
and  homespun  was  in  general  domestic  use.  Vines  and  silk  were  also 
tried  under  government  auspices,  as  in  the  other  colonies,  and  with  a 
like  lack  of  success.  The  most  marked  development  was  seen  in  the 
iron  industry.  The  first  furnace  was  started  in  the  year  1720,  and 
in  1750  three  thousand  tons  of  pig-iron  were  exported.  The  industry 
had  reached  such  proportions  as  to  attract  the  notice  of  Parliament, 
and  led  to  an  act  to  suppress  rolling  and  slitting  mills,  and  to  en 
courage  the  exportation  of  the  raw  material  only  for  the  benefit  of  the 
mother  country.  The  establishment  of  a  fire-insurance  company,  and, 
later,  of  one  for  life  insurance,  together  with  steps  taken  to  secure  pat 
ents  of  new  processes  of  weaving  and  for  cleansing  corn,  all  indicate 
the  existence  of  an  active  and  enterprising  business  community.  The 
produce  of  the  farms  was  floated  down  the  rivers  from  the  interior, 
or  brought  in  sacks  on  the  backs  of  horses,  and  shipped  from  Phila 
delphia.  The  farms  were,  as  a  rule,  well  managed,  and  the  agricult 
ure  was,  as  compared  with  that  of  the  other  colonies,  high  and 
thrifty.  A  hasty  survey  of  the  trade  and  industries  of  Pennsyl 
vania  gives  at  once  an  insight  into  the  character  of  the  people,  and 
displays  a  rich  and  growing  prosperity,  and  a  thrift  in  management 
wholly  different  from  the  south,  which  stamps  the  middle  colonies 
with  a  peculiar  character.1 

The  governments  of  Pennsylvania  and  Delaware  consisted  of  a  sin 
gle  executive  for  both  provinces,  with  a  legislature  for  each ;  and  it 
is  sufficient  to  describe  the  system  of  the  former  to  understand  both. 
The  government  of  Pennsylvania  differed  in  some  important  respects 
from  those  of  the  other  colonies.  With  the  exception  of  Maryland 
and,  of  course,  Delaware,  it  was  the  only  proprietary  government,  and 
the  descendants  of  William  Penn  stood  in  a  relation  of  quasi  sover- 

1  As  to  trade  and  industry  in  Pennsylvania,  see  Huguenot  Family  in  Virginia, 
p.  30 ;  Crevecoeur,  p.  46 ;  Smyth,  ii.,  303,  307,  308  ;  Kalm,  i.,  52,  102,  160 ;  ii.  139 ; 
Burnaby,  pp.  78,  80,  82 ;  Coll.  Hist.  Soc.,  i.,  197 ;  Ibid.,  Republ.,  Watson's  Annals  of 
Buckingham  County,  etc.,  as  to  late  development  of  coal ;  Watson's  Annals  of  Phil 
adelphia,  ii.,  1768  ;  Description  of  Pennsylvania  by  Gabriel  Thomas ;  Wallace,  Inaug. 
Address,  Hist.  Soc.,  1872  ;  Hist.  Coll., ix., Penn  and  fur  trade;  Pennsylvania  Hist. 
Mag.,  i.,  68  ;  Watson's  Annals  of  Philadelphia,  ii. ;  Col.  Records,  iii.,  1717 ;  iv.,  1736  ; 
v.,  1750 ;  Hazard,  Pennsylvania  Archives,  1750,  Smuggling,  1775  ;  Rochefoucauld, 
i.,  32 ;  Pennsylvania  Laws,  1700, 1730 ;  and  in  1759,  Laws  for  inspection  of  lumber 
for  protection  of  Province,  common  to  all  great  articles  of  export ;  for  Delaware, 
Brissot,  p.  362 ;  Pennsylvania  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  xi.,  Acrelius ;  Rochefoucauld,  ii.,  272, 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  231 

eignty,  and  drew  a  large  revenue  from  the  great  colony  which  bore 
their  name.  The  executive  department  was  composed  of  the  Gov 
ernor  and  his  Council,  who  were  simply  advisory,  and  did  not  sit  as 
an  Upper  House,  the  entire  legislative  power  being  vested  in  a  single 
body  of  delegates  chosen  by  the  people.  The  deputy  or  acting  Gov 
ernor  was  appointed  by  the  proprietary  to  serve  in  his  absence,  and 
was  subject  to  the  royal  approval.  As  in  all  colonies  where  the  peo 
ple  were  not  opposed  by  the  power  of  the  Crown,  the  Governor  was 
of  little  importance.  The  sheriffs  and  coroners  were  elected  by  the 
people,  and  all  officers  whose  duties  were  financial  were  chosen  either 
by  the  people  or  the  Assembly.  The  only  appointments  of  impor 
tance  in  the  hands  of  the  Governor  were  judicial,  and  his  only  valu 
able  prerogative  was  the  power  to  pardon  in  all  cases  but  those  of 
murder  and  treason,  where  he  might  grant  a  reprieve,  subject  to  the 
approval  of  the  Crown.  The  Assembly  also  held  the  purse-strings, 
excluded  the  Governor  from  Indian  affairs,  and,  going  much  further 
than  elsewhere,  sat  on  their  own  adjournment,  and  denied  success 
fully  the  right  of  the  Governor  to  either  dissolve  or  prorogue,  al 
though  admitting  his  power  to  summon  them  by  writ.  The  confusion 
and  faction  of  an  earlier  period,  when  Logan  was  wont  to  advise  a 
surrender  to  the  Crown,  had  resulted  in  the  supremacy  of  the  Assem 
bly.  The  representatives  had  a  property  qualification,  and  were  voted 
for  by  the  tax-paying  freemen,  a  more  liberal  suffrage  than  that  in 
vogue  elsewhere,  while  naturalization  was,  as  usual,  obtained  by  peti 
tion,  examined  by  the  Governor,  and  recommended  to  the  House. 
The  only  check  upon  legislation  was  the  right  of  repeal  reserved  to 
the  King  in  council.1 

The  proprietary  drew  his  income  from  the  quit-rents  reserved  in  all 
deeds,  and  which  could  be  collected  by  distress,  and  from  his  great 
manors,  the  taxation  of  which  was  such  a  fruitful  source  of  conten 
tion.  Salaries  were  small,  and  taxation  light.  The  net  revenue, 
raised  by  direct  taxes,  excise,  and  light  customs,  amounted  to  eight 
thousand  pounds,  and  one  thousand  pounds  was  derived  from  the 
tonnage  duties  for  the  benefit  of  light-houses.  There  was  no  navy, 
and  the  militia,  established  with  difficulty  on  account  of  the  hostility 
of  the  Quakers,  was  small,  no  expense  to  the  public,  and  wretchedly 

1  Smyth,  ii.,  303  ;  Burnaby,  pp.  82,  84 ;  for  Delaware,  p.  74 ;  Pennsylvania  Laws, 
1705,  1750;  Col.  Rec.,  in.,  1729;  iv.,  1745;  vii.,  1757;  Hazard,  Pennsylvania  Ar 
chives,  1775,  Answer  to  Hillsborough ;  Watson's  Anuals  of  Philadelphia,  i.,  25. 


232  HISTORY  OF  THE 

inefficient,  except  in  Delaware,  where  it  was  established  by  law,  and 
where  all  men  between  eighteen  and  fifty  were  required  to  serve.1 

The  judicial  system  was  above  the  colonial  standard,  both  as  re 
gards  bench  and  bar.  The  early  Quaker  scheme  of  peace-makers  to 
act  as  arbitrators  and  prevent  lawsuits  seems  to  have  met  with  little 
success  ;3  and  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution  there  was  an  adequate  and 
efficient  organization  for  the  administration  of  the  common  law,  which 
prevailed  in  Pennsylvania  as  elsewhere,  except  when  modified  by  stat 
utes,  imperial  or  provincial.  All  judges  were  appointed  by  the  Gov 
ernor.  The  lowest  court  was  that  of  the  local  magistrate  or  justice  of 
the  peace,  competent  to  try  cases  involving  less  than  forty  shillings. 
The  next  was  the  county  court,  or  court  of  quarter-sessions,  composed 
of  three  justices,  who  sat  by  special  commission  as  a  court  of  common 
pleas ;  while  the  highest  tribunal  was  the  supreme  court,  consisting  of 
a  chief-justice  and  three  puisne  judges,  with  general  appellate  juris 
diction,  and  combining  the  functions  of  the  English  courts  of  com 
mon  pleas,  king's  bench,  and  exchequer.  They  held  two  terms,  and 
were  also  empowered  to  sit  as  a  court  of  oyer  and  terminer,  and 
hold  a  general  jail  delivery,  a  power  rarely  exercised.  Causes  in 
volving  more  than  fifty  pounds  could  be  carried  up  from  the  su 
preme  court  to  the  King  in  council.  There  was  no  court  of  chan 
cery.  Keith  had  succeeded  in  establishing  one,  with  himself  as  chan 
cellor,  under  the  charter ;  but  after  his  rule  it  was  suppressed,  and  such 
equity  jurisdiction  as  was  required  was  exercised  by  the  common-law 
courts.  There  was  a  register-general  of  probate  and  administration  at 
Philadelphia,  and  recorders  of  deeds  appointed  at  an  early  period  in 
each  county.  There  was  also  an  English  court  of  vice  -  admiralty, 
from  which  there  was  an  appeal  to  England ;  but  this  court  was  so 
unpopular  that  the  judge  at  one  time  complained  that  he  could  not 
perform  the  duties  of  his  office.  The  judiciary  of  Delaware  was  simi 
lar  in  arrangement,  but  formed  an  independent  organization. 

The  bar  in  Pennsylvania  was  exceptionally  good,  and  had  always 
received  full  recognition.  Practice  was  simple,  and  attorneys  were 
admitted  by  the  justices  after  slight  examination ;  but  the  law,  as  a 
profession,  had  many  excellent  representatives  in  the  colony,  and 
drew  to  its  ranks  many  men  of  learning  and  ability.  Andrew  Ham- 

1  Burnaby,  p.  89 ;  Watson's  Annals,  i.,  25 ;  tftat  Present  de  la  Pennsylvanie ; 
Col.  Rec.,  vii.,  1757,  Militia ;  ix.,  1767,  Letter  from  J.  Penn  to  Shelburne ;  Hazard, 
Pennsylvania  Archives,  1763. 

8  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  Hi.,  Hist,  of  Bristol  Borough,  1683  ;  Col.  Rec.,  ii.,  1709. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  233 

ilton,  who  defended  Zenger,  was  the  first  American  lawyer  who  gained 
more  than  a  local  reputation,  and  the  only  one  who  did  so  in  colonial 
times.1 

The  religious  system  of  Pennsylvania  was  peculiar  to  that  province, 
and  was  the  most  important  feature  of  her  public  policy,  for  it  was  the 
system  of  Pennsylvania  which  received  the  sanction  of  the  revolution 
ary  Congress  and  of  the  Convention  of  1789,  and  which  now  prevails 
throughout  the  United  States.  There  was,  with  one  trifling  exception 
due  to  secular  causes,  genuine  religious  freedom  from  the  beginning. 
The  oppression  of  New  England  and  Virginia,  of  Congregationalist 
and  Episcopalian,  was  unknown,  and  toleration  did  not  rest  on  the 
narrow  foundation  of  expediency  to  which  it  owed  its  early  adoption 
in  Maryland.  The  Quakers  in  power  were  true  to  the  tenets  which 
they  had  preached  when  persecuted.  Penn's  followers  were,  however, 
a  religious  people,  and,  although  they  promised  to  all  Christians  per 
fect  toleration,  a  strong  tone  of  religion  pervades  the  "  nervous  proc 
lamation  "  against  vice,  and  the  early  laws  of  the  same  character.2 
Yet  there  was  but  little  Sabbatarian  legislation  such  as  we  find  upon 
the  statute-book  of  both  Virginia  and  Massachusetts,  although  an  un 
fortunate  barber  was  presented  by  the  grand-jury  of  an  early  period 
for  "  trimming  on  the  first  day."3  There  is,  however,  no  indication 
that  Sunday  was  less  observed,  or  that  the  morals  of  the  people  were 
worse  on  this  account,  and  the  same  may  be  said  in  regard  to  the 
recognition  of  marriages  solemnized  in  any  religious  society  whatever. 
The  generous  toleration  thus  afforded  attracted  all  forms  and  creeds  to 
Pennsylvania,  and  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution  the  facts  especially 
noticed  by  all  observers  are  the  universal  toleration,  and  the  number 
and  mixture  of  sects.  One  writer  asserts  that  religious  indifference 
was  a  characteristic  of  the  people  owing  to  this  mingling  of  sects, 
and  his  opinion  would  seem  to  be  borne  out  by  the  religious  laxity  in 
dicated  by  the  prevalence  of  church  lotteries.4  The  forms  were  cer 
tainly  less  rigid  than  elsewhere ;  but  the  piety  was  as  genuine  and  re 
ligion  as  wholesome  and  wide-spread  as  in  any  colony. 

1  As  to  the  courts  and  the  bar  in  Pennsylvania,  see  Burnaby,  pp.  83,  84 ;  for  Del 
aware,  p.  74  ;  Laws  of  Pennsylvania,  1705, 1713, 1715, 1722 ;  Jud.  Act,  1752, 1767 ; 
Col.  Rec.,  iii.,  1720 ;  Hazard,  Pennsylvania  Archives,  1727  ;  Watson's  Annals,  i. 

2  Hist.  Coll.,  ix.,  12,  Penn  to  Logan,  "  Prepare  a  nervous  proclamation  against 
vice."  8  Watson's  Annals,  i.,  1703. 

4  Cre>eco3ur,  p.  62;  Pennsylvania  Laws,  1765,  1767, 1768;  Memoirs  of  a  Life 
passed  chiefly  in  Pennsylvania,  p.  6. 


234  HISTORY  OF  THE 

The  oldest  church  in  the  two  provinces  was  that  founded  by  the  first 
settlers,  who  were  Swedish  Lutherans,  and  this  sect  maintained  itself 
for  more  than  a  century,  forming  the  only  connecting  link  between 
the  worshippers  and  their  mother  country.  The  ministers  came 
from  Sweden  until  the  year  1786,  when  a  petition  for  their  discontin 
uance  was  sent,  because  their  speech  was  no  longer  intelligible.1  But 
though  the  distinctions  of  race  were  effaced,  the  creed  survived,  was 
adopted  by  the  Dutch,  and  extended  by  the  German  immigrants  of 
1'ke  faith.  The  Quakers  were,  of  course,  much  stronger  than  any  other 
single  sect,  although  they  speedily  sank  from  controlling  numbers  to 
a  minority  of  the  whole  population.  They  had  much  more  religious 
energy  than  any  other  denomination,  more  fondness  for  their  forms, 
and  maintained  with  greater  solicitude  their  connection  with  the  par 
ent  societies.  The  English  Church,  although  founded  at  an  early  pe 
riod,  never  flourished.  It  served  as  a  cry  to  the  "  Hot  Church  party," 
which  was  headed  by  Colonel  Quarry,  to  oppose  Penn  and  favor  a 
royal  government ;  but  it  never  obtained  any  importance,  and  was  sus 
tained  only  by  the  gifts  of  the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gos 
pel.  Weak  as  it  was,  however,  it  was  the  only  one  of  the  churches 
which  might  some  day  be  raised  above  the  others  by  the  strong  arm 
of  government ;  and  when  the  Bishop  of  London  proposed  to  present 
a  minister  his  right  was  resisted  and  denied  by  the  people,  and  claimed 
for  the  proprietary  and  Governor. 

The  most  important  sects  next  to  the  Quakers  were  the  Lutherans 
and  Presbyterians,  the  latter  supported  by  the  Irish  and  Scotch  set 
tlers,  and  with  an  active,  able,  and  energetic  ministry,  who  spread  their 
doctrines  with  much  success  through  the  province.  There  were  also 
respectable  bodies  of  Dutch  Calvinists,  Baptists,  Anabaptists,  and 
Moravians.  There  were,  too,  many  of  the  strange  sects  and  mysti 
cal  societies  whose  members  came  from  Germany  in  search  of  the 
peace  and  toleration  offered  by  the  Quakers.  Among  these,  besides 
the  Moravians,  were  Dunkards,  dressed  like  Dominican  friars,  Mennon- 
ists,  Pietists,  and  Ridge  Hermits.  Last  of  all  come  the  Roman 
Catholics,  a  small  body,  principally  composed  of  Irish  and  Ger 
mans,  which  was  certainly  insignificant,  and  would  have  remained  con 
tented  and  unmolested  but  for  the  coming  of  the  hapless  Acadians, 
and  the  fact  of  the  old  French  war.  The  possible  danger  of  Indian 


1  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  xi.,  Acrelius,  Hist. ;  Pennsylvania  Hist.  Mag.,  p.  1,  Black's  Jour, 
nal ;  Col.  Records,  ix.,  1765. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  235 

inroads,  conducted  by  Frenchmen,  was  enough  to  rouse  the  two 
strongest  hatreds  of  which  a  man  of  English  race  was  at  that  time 
capable.  Frenchmen  and  Papists  could  mean  nothing  but  harm  to 
any  community.  The  Acadians  were  both;  and  some  of  the  Irish  and 
Germans  were  the  latter.  In  the  year  1755  three  Frenchmen  were  ar 
rested  for  poisoning  wells,  and  the  excitement  was  at  its  height.  The 
Acadians,  by  the  interposition  of  certain  Huguenot  Quakers,  were  pro 
vided  for  by  the  Assembly  ;  but  they  were  dispersed  among  the  coun 
ties,  and,  broken  by  misfortune,  sank  into  poverty,  and  rapidly  disap 
peared.  It  was  also  said  that  Irish  priests  stirred  up  the  people  at  the 
mass-houses  to  join  the  French ;  and  as  a  consequence  of  this  union, 
Roman  Catholics  were  disarmed,  and  their  houses  searched ;  they  were 
exempted  from  the  militia,  and  compelled  to  pay  fines.  Their  number 
in  Philadelphia  was  not  at  this  time  over  two  thousand,  and  they  were 
the  poorest  and  most  ignorant  of  the  population.  Their  persecution 
was,  however,  only  passing,  and  was  due,  not  to  religious  bigotry,  but 
to  the  wave  of  fear  which  swept  over  the  English  colonies  when  France 
let  loose  her  savages  upon  their  borders.1  With  this  single  exception, 
the  religious  system  of  Pennsylvania  was  one  of  perfect  toleration,  and 
the  condition  of  religious  affairs  differed  in  no  essential  respect,  either 
social  or  political,  from  that  which  is  common  to  all  the  United  States 
to-day.  With  this  simple  policy  of  tolerance  to  all,  religion  in  Penn 
sylvania  plays  no  conspicuous  part  in  her  history.  There  was  little  os 
tentation  connected  with  the  varied  worships.  The  churches  or  meet 
ing-houses  were,  as  a  rule,  small  and  plain,  but  neat  buildings,  and  the 
clergy  a  respected  and  respectable  class,  honored  in  their  calling,  but 
neither  a  picturesque  body,  as  in  Virginia,  nor  one  of  great  social  and 
political  influence,  as  in  Massachusetts. 

The  standing  of  the  lawyers  and  the  clergy  are  indications  of  the 
great  differences  existing  between  the  middle  and  southern  colonies. 
Another  similar  and  even  more  striking  illustration  is  to  be  found 

1  As  to  Religion  in  Pennsylvania,  see  Crevecceur,  p.  62 ;  Abbe  Robin,  p.  93 ; 
Kalm,  i.,  36  ;  Burnaby,  p.  84 ;  Hist.  Soc.,  i.,  62,  Procl.  of  Evans ;  Ibid.,  iii.,  History 
of  Bristol  Borough  Episcopal  Church,  1683;  Ibid.,vi.,  as  to  Acadians;  Pennsyl 
vania  Laws,  1700, 1705, 1724, 1725, 1756  ;  Watson's  Annals,  i.  and  ii.,  as  to  Eng 
lish  Church  and  German  Sects;  Col.  Rec.,  vii.,  448,  1757;  ix.,  1755,  1756,  1757, 
1765  ;  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  xi.,  Acrelius,  as  to  Ephrata  and  Herrenhutters ;  Huguenot 
Family  in  Virginia,  p.  301 ;  Chateaubriand,  vii.,  18  ;  Anderson's  History  of  Colonial 
Church,  ii.,  435 ;  Chambers,  A  Tribute  to  the  Irish  and  Scotch  settlers ;  Rochefou> 
cauld,  L,  26. 


236  HISTORY  OF  THE 

in  the  third  great  profession  —  that  of  medicine.  As  has  been  re 
marked,  in  the  colonies  to  the  south,  medical  men,  as  a  class,  were  in 
themselves  of  little  merit,  and  socially  and  politically  had  no  impor 
tance,  whereas  in  Pennsylvania  the  case  was  exactly  reversed.  Al 
though  Gabriel  Thomas  asserts,  in  mentioning  the  attractions  of  the 
colony,  that  it  had  neither  lawyers  nor  doctors,  and  was  therefore 
both  peaceable  and  healthy,  yet  there  is  no  doubt  that  two  physicians 
of  good  reputation  came  out  with  Penn,  and  that  from  that  time  on 
the  profession  was  respected,  and  was  always  extending  its  influence  and 
its  services.  The  country  physicians,  except  in  the  back  districts,  where 
the  practice  was  of  the  rudest  sort,  were  apparently  men  of  good  re 
pute,  eking  out  a  slender  professional  income  by  farming  or  shop- 
keeping;  but  the  most  eminent  of  the  profession  were  gathered,  of 
course,  in  Philadelphia.  There  were  certain  marks  of  simplicity  about 
them  which  seem  odd  to-day,  but  were  then  either  the  fashion  ev 
erywhere,  or  qualities  incident  to  a  new  country.  Although  there 
were  regular  druggists,  yet  even  the  best  doctors  were  expected  to  be 
apothecaries  as  well,  and  dispense  medicines  to  their  patients.  They 
almost  invariably  walked  in  making  their  round  of  visits  in  the  towns, 
and  in  the  country  rode  on  horseback.  Midwifery  was  given  up  exclu 
sively  to  women.  The  profession,  as  a  whole,  was  of  remarkably  good 
quality,  and  it  is  said  that  in  all  Philadelphia  there  were  not  more  than 
two  or  three  quacks.  The  services  rendered  to  the  progress  of  medical 
science  by  the  profession  in  Pennsylvania  were  as  great,  if  not  greater, 
than  in  any  other  colony,  and  were  in  themselves  very  considerable. 
Inoculation  was  successfully  introduced  in  the  year  1731,  although 
not  without  the  usual  hard  contest  with  existing  prejudices.  Three 
years  later  Dr.  Thomas  Cadwalader,  a  graduate  of  the  London  schools, 
published  an  essay  upon  the  "  Iliac  Passion  " — the  first  medical  book 
produced  in  Pennsylvania,  and  one  of  the  earliest  which  appeared  in 
the  colonies.  About  the  middle  of  the  century  he  began  to  lecture 
upon  anatomy,  and  was  the  pioneer  in  this  branch  of  medical  instruc 
tion.  He  was  also  one  of  the  first  physicians  appointed  to  the  hospi 
tal  founded  in  Philadelphia  in  the  year  1750.  Ten  years  later  Dr.  Wil 
liam  Shippen  began  a  course  of  anatomical  lectures  in  a  private  house, 
and  by  these  small  beginnings  he  and  his  friend,  Dr.  Morgan,  succeeded 
in  starting  the  medical  college  which  in  the  year  1765  was  ingrafted 
upon  the  University  of  Pennsylvania.  Dr.  Shippen  subsequently  did 
much  to  raise  the  practice  of  midwifery  from  the  rule  of  thumb 
methods  of  the  old  women,  who  had  a  monopoly  of  this  department. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  237 

These  energetic  and  able  men — among  whom  Dr.  Rush,  famous  also 
by  his  controversy  with  Cobbett,  held  a  leading  place — were  fair  ex 
amples  of  their  profession.  They  were  men  of  family,  position, 
and  wealth,  were  educated  abroad,  and  were  adherents  of  the  English 
school.  They  not  only  did  much  to  advance  medical  science  in 
America,  but  they  helped  to  break  the  old  tradition  of  barbers  and 
apothecaries,  which  even  now  weighs  upon  medicine  in  England,  and 
to  put  the  profession,  one  of  the  noblest  to  which  a  man  can  devote 
himself,  in  its  true  position,  and  to  render  it  attractive,  honorable,  and 
desirable  to  men  of  all  ranks  and  of  the  highest  attainments.1 

Variety  of  pursuits  and  a  membership  representing  all  classes  of 
the  community  was  not  confined  to  the  learned  professions.  In  Phil 
adelphia  there  were  great  merchants,  many  busy  shopkeepers,  and  not 
a  few  ingenious  artisans  and  mechanics.8  In  the  smaller  towns  there 
were  the  petty  store-keepers  and  the  restless  Indian  traders,  who  roam 
ed  from  the  sea-coast  to  the  Alleghanies  and  to  the  fertile  region  of 
the  Ohio  in  search  of  furs  for  the  European  market.3  There  were 
others  of  the  people,  too,  engaged  in  the  infant  manufactures,  and 
in  the  mining  industries  just  coming  into  life.  Thus,  although  the 
bulk  of  the  population  consisted  of  farmers,  there  was  an  active  and 
important  element  of  tradesmen,  great  and  small,  which  made  its  in 
fluence  felt  throughout  the  entire  community,  while,  in  addition,  the 
learned  professions  were  eagerly  sought  and  successfully  practised  by 
the  best  men  in  the  province.  Variety  of  interest  and  of  occupation 
was  not,  therefore,  wanting  in  Pennsylvania,  and  it  caused  liberality 
and  enterprise  among  the  people,  and  a  rapid  material  development 
which  was  even  then  in  progress. 

In  a  community  with  so  large  an  interest  in  trade  and  shopkeep- 
ing,  there  was,  of  course,  from  the  outset  the  usual  tendency  to  con 
centrate  for  the  better  prosecution  of  business.  Philadelphia  throve 
from  the  beginning,  was  in  the  year  1750  second  only  to  Boston  in 
size  and  importance,  and  by  the  time  of  the  Revolution  had  become 
the  first  city  in  America  in  population.  The  inhabitants  of  the  city 

1  As  to  medicine  in  Pennsylvania,  see  Wickes,  Hist,  of  Medicine  in  New  Jer 
sey,  pt.  i. ;  Raynal,  Eng.  ed.,  p.  120;  Brissot,  p.  301 ;  Gabriel  Thomas's  Descript. 
of  Pennsylvania;  Pennsylvania  Laws,  1724,  1750;  Wallace's  Inaugural  Address, 
1872 ;  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.  Republ.,  i.,  Watson's  Account  of  Buckingham  County,  etc., 
Med.  Hist,  of  Pennsylvania ;  Hist,  of  University  of  Pennsylvania,  iii. ;  Watson's 
Annals  of  Philadelphia,  ii. ;  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  8. 

2  Kalm,  i.,  68.  *  Gabriel  Thomas's  Description. 


238  HISTORY  OF  THE 

proper  numbered  more  than  twenty-five  thousand,  and  those  of  the 
suburbs  carried  the  total  above  thirty  thousand.1 

The  city  was  laid  out  on  the  imbecile  checker-board  pattern  now 
almost  universal  in  the  United  States,  and  the  High  Street  running 
through  the  centre  of  the  town  was  the  great  promenade  for  the  citi 
zens.  From  the  very  outset  good  building  was  the  rule ;  the  houses 
were  chiefly  of  brick,  some  of  stone,  and  but  few  of  wood.  The  pub 
lic  buildings  were  comely  and  useful  structures,  and  considered  in  their 
day  imposing  and  handsome.  The  churches  were  small  and  unpre 
tentious,  but  neat.  The  open  squares,  long  rows  of  poplars,  and  large 
gardens  and  orchards  about  the  houses  of  the  better  sort,  gave  some 
relief  to  the  rigid  lines  of  the  streets.  In  the  matter  of  police  regu 
lations,  more  had  been  done  in  Philadelphia  at  that  time  than  in 
most  cities  in  any  part  of  the  world,  and  this  was  chiefly  due  to  the 
genius  and  the  quiet  energy  of  Franklin.  At  his  arrival  the  town 
was  filthy,  and  unpaved,  unlighted,  and  guarded  only  by  half  a  dozen 
constables  drawn  from  the  citizens.  When  the  Continental  Con 
gress  assembled,  the  crossings  everywhere  were  paved,  as  well  as  the 
principal  streets ;  there  was  a  regular  watch  to  patrol  the  town, 
cleaning  was  performed  by  contract,  instead  of  inefficiently  by  con 
victs,  and  the  streets  were  dimly  lighted.  By  Franklin's  exertions 
the  city  had  come  to  be  the  pride  of  the  province,  and  there  was 
abundant  legislation  for  its  benefit.  The  well-built  houses,  sometimes 
rising  over  shops  and  store-houses,  sometimes  surrounded  by  gardens, 
were  generally  in  the  English  style  of  the  eighteenth  century.  They 
all  had  broad  porches  and  projecting  roofs  and  windows.  Many  were 
adorned  with  balconies,  and  the  old  dials  set  in  the  walls  served  in  large 
measure  as  time-keepers  to  a  race  ignorant  of  steam-engines.  The  most 
characteristic  feature  of  the  town  was  the  sidewalks,  marked  off  from 
the  roadway  by  posts  at  short  intervals,  and  by  pumps,  surmounted 
by  lamps,  and  thirty  yards  apart.  Within  these  posts  foot-passengers 
found  protection  from  vehicles ;  and  convivial  gentlemen,  groping  their 

1  Magazine  of  Amer.  Hist.,  i.,  231,  Narr.  of  Prince  de  Broglie,  30,000;  Elkanah 
Watson,  1784, 6000  houses,  60,000  people;  tftat  Present  de  la  Pennsylvanie,  1756, 
12,000;  Michaux,  1749, 11,000;  1785,40,000:  Smyth,  ii.,  304,  35,000 ;  Abb6  Ro 
bin,  pp.88,  93,1781,  20,000;  Brissot,p.  120,1766,20,000;  Kalm,i.,  31,  Philadelphia 
second  to  Boston  only,  p.  57,1746,10,000;  quadruples  nearly  in  twenty  years: 
Burnaby, p.  76, 1759,  3000  houses,  18,000  to  20,000  people;  Watson's  Annals,  ii., 
in  Philadelphia  and  suburbs,  1753, 2300  houses;  1762,2969;  1769,3300;  1777, 
4474 ;  25,000  to  30,000  people. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  239 

way  home  through  the  faintly  lighted  streets,  butted  against  them,  and 
were  thus  kept  in  the  foot-path  and  out  of  the  gutter.  Houses  and 
sidewalks  were  scrupulously  clean,  and  even  the  large  and  commodi 
ous  market  at  the  end  of  the  High  Street,  filled  every  morning  with  a 
busy  crowd,  was  neat,  quiet,  and  orderly.  All  the  foreign  commerce 
of  the  province  centred  in  Philadelphia,  and  the  quays  along  the  river 
were  the  scene  of  bustle  and  activity  inseparable  from  thriving  trade. 
Great  fairs  brought  in  the  country  people,  and  these,  with  the  seamen 
and  strangers,  gave  life  and  variety  to  the  streets  and  squares.  High 
rents  indicated  the  growth  and  business  importance  of  the  town, 
which,  small  as  it  appears  in  comparison  with  modern  cities,  was- 
large  by  any  standard  of  the  eighteenth  century.  To  Chateaubriand 
Philadelphia  seemed  triste,  and  he  comments  on  the  similarity  of  the 
houses,  and  the  dull,  monotonous  aspect  of  the  town.  To  Jefferson, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  impression  of  the  neat,  well-built,  and  prosper 
ous,  yet  simple  Quaker  city,  after  the  slovenly  little  villages  of  Vir 
ginia,  was  neVer  lost,  and  he  wrote,  many  years  later,  that  he  thought 
Philadelphia  handsomer  than  either  London  or  Paris.  The  truth  lies 
probably  somewhere  between.  Philadelphia  before  the  Revolution  was 
a  genuine  English  country  town  of  the  best  sort,  well-kept  and  thrifty, 
with  unmistakable  signs  of  the  well-being  of  its  inhabitants.1 

The  forces  which  had  built  up  Philadelphia  were  not  without  effect 
elsewhere  in  the  province.  Germantown,  with  its  infant  manufactures, 
was  a  prosperous  village.  The  houses  were  less  good  than  in  the  cap 
ital,  and  here  and  there  were  to  be  seen  the  little  dwellings  of  the 
early  settlers,  with  gabled  ends  toward  the  streets,  low  rooms,  and 
projecting  eaves.  Other  towns  were  rapidly  springing  up  at  a  greater 
distance  from  Philadelphia.  Reading,  in  the  year  1749,  had  only  one 
house,  and  two  years  later  had  one  hundred  and  thirty  ;  while  Lancas 
ter,  with  a  German  and  Irish  population  of  nearly  ten  thousand,  was  the 
largest  inland  town  in  the  colonies,  and  York  did  not  fail  far  behind 
it.  The  little  town  of  Bristol,  a  fair  type  of  the  Pennsylvania  village, 
has  been  described  by  one  who  was  born  and  lived  there  in  the  late 

1  For  Philadelphia,  see  Huguenot  Family  in  Virginia,  pp.  301-2  ;  Michaux,  p.  20 ; 
Smyth,  ii.,  303,  304,  307-9  ;  Abbe  Robin,  p.  93  ;  Brissot,  pp.  204,  207  ;  Raynal,  pp. 
119, 120  ;  Journal  of  Claude  Blanchard,  p.  135  ;  Kalm,  i.,  34,  35, 44, 45,  57 ;  Burna- 
by,  pp.  76,  78 ;  Wansey's  Tour,  p.  184 ;  Gabriel  Thomas's  Description,  1698  ;  Penn 
sylvania  Laws,  1761, 1768, 1771 ;  Pennsylvania  Hist.  Mag.,  I,  Black's  Journal ;  Wat 
son's  Annals  of  Philadelphia,  i.,ii., generally;  Memoirs  of  Elkanah  Watson,  1784; 
Chateaubriand,  vii.,  17. 


240  HISTORY  OF  THE 

provincial  times.  The  great  road  to  New  York  "formed  the  prin 
cipal  and,  indeed,  the  only  street  marked  by  anything  like  a  conti-. 
nuity  of  building.  A  few  side  streets  were  opened  from  this  main^ 
road,  on  which,  here  and  there,  stood  an  humble,  solitary  dwelling. 
At  a  corner  of  two  of  these  lanes  was  a  Quaker  meeting-house ;  and 
on  a  still  more  retired  spot  stood  a  small  Episcopal  church,  whose 
lonely  graveyard,  with  its  surrounding  woody  scenery,  might  have 
furnished  an  appropriate  theme  for  such  a  muse  as  Gray's.  These, 
together  with  an  old  brick  jail  (Bristol  having  once  been  the  county 
town  of  Bucks),  constituted  all  the  public  edifices."1 

In  Delaware,  Newcastle,  the  capital  of  the  lower  counties,  was  an 
ill-built  and  unattractive  place ;  but  Wilmington,  with  an  active  popu 
lation  of  merchants  and  mechanics,  was  growing  rapidly.  The  houses 
were  generally  of  brick,  and  many  of  the  quaint  buildings  of  the  Swedes 
still  remained.  It  had  fairs  and  a  good  trade,  and  is  spoken  of  by  all 
the  travellers  of  the  time  as  a  neat,  pretty,  and  prosperous  town.  The 
town  life,  the  constant  association  of  many  members  of  th*e  community 
with  their  fellow-beings,  had,  of  course,  a  marked  effect  upon  society, 
and  found  its  fullest  expression  in  Philadelphia.2 

The  well-defined  classes,  and  simple  but  strongly  marked  social  and 
political  system  of  the  southern  States,  are  lost  in  Pennsylvania.  There 
was,  as  in  all  the  colonies,  an  aristocracy  composed  of  the  descendants 
of  Perm's  principal  followers,  many  of  whom  were  landed  gentry,  own 
ing  great  estates  from  which  they  drew  their  revenues,  and  of  wealthy 
farmers  and  successful  merchants;  but  this  aristocracy  was  neither  dis 
tinctly  marked  nor  homogeneous  and  compact.  Its  members  received 
a  certain  recognition,  and  were  often  leaders  in  the  province,  but  they 
were  not  politically  or  socially  powerful.  Indeed,  they  were  so  ill- 
defined  as  a  class,  that  one  careful  observer,  who  lived  long  in  Penn 
sylvania,  declares  that  there  was-  no  aristocracy  in  existence.8  This 
weakness  arpse  in  great  measure  from  the  absence  of  primogeniture, 
excluded  by  Penn's  hostility,4  from  the  supineness  of  the  upper  classes 
themselves,  and  from  the  character  and  pursuits  of  the  mass  of  the 
population ;  for  there  is  no  indication  that  there  was  any  levelling 

1  Memoirs  of  a  Life  passed  chiefly  in  Pennsylvania,  p.  4. 

9  For  small  towns  in  Pennsylvania  and  Delaware,  see  Smyth,  ii.,  278,  279 ;  Bur- 
naby,  pp.  73,  76,  80 ;  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  i.,  Republ.  Conynham's  Hist.  Notes ;  Watson's 
Annals,  ii. ;  Brissot,  p.  362 ;  Kalm,  i.,  89, 157 ;  Pennsylvania  Hist.  Mag.,  i.,  Black's 
Journal ;  Ferris's  Original  Settlements  on  the  Delaware ;  Elkanah  Watson's  Me 
moirs,  1784.  8  O6vecoeur,  p.  46.  4  Watson,  L 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  241 

spirit  in  Pennsylvania,  or  any  of.  the  vigorous  democratic  theories 
which  prevailed  in  New  England.  But,  however  weak  and  ill-defined 
the  aristocracy  may  have  been,  there  is  no  doubt  of  its  existence,  nor 
of  that  of  the  aristocratic  spirit  which  must  always  be  found  when  any 
portion  of  the  community  is  in  a  state  of  enforced  servitude.  Free 
labor  was  the  rule  in  Pennsylvania,  and  there  was  also  free  service ; 
but  there  were,  besides,  bond-servants  and  slaves. 

African  slaves  were  brought  to  Pennsylvania  as  to  the  other  col 
onies  soon  after  the  settlement,  but  they  never  became  very  numerous. 
They  were  employed  generally  as  house  servants,  and  in  Delaware  as 
field  hands,  but  do  not  appear  to  have  been  much  used  on  the  Pennsyl 
vania  farms,  and  not  at  all  in  iron-works  or  any  other  of  the  industries. 
They  gathered  principally  at  Philadelphia,  and  in  the  eastern  counties. 
Their  insignificance  as  a  class,  and  the  feebleness  of  slavery  as  an  insti 
tution,  were  due  to  a  variety  of  causes,  of  which  the  first  and  most  im 
portant  was  the  supremacy  of  free  labor,  and  the  consequent  presence 
of  large  bodies  of  white  men  who  worked  themselves.  The  climate  was 
too  severe  for  the  negroes  fresh  from  Africa  or  the  West  Indies,  and 
they  were  expensive  and  precarious  property,  while  the  bond-servants 
were  cheap  and  plentiful.  The  Quakers,  as  a  sect — although  many  of 
them  came  to  hold  slaves  with  indifference — displayed  toward  slavery 
an  unwavering  hostility  very  bitter  at  the  outset,  and  while  under  Penn's 
immediate  influence,  but  always  persistent  and  active.  They  used  the 
arguments  of  religion  to  bring  about  manumission  by  members  of  the 
meeting ;  and  such  men  as  Woolman  and  Benezet  devoted  their  lives 
to  warfare  upon  slavery.  This  spirit  was  strongly  manifested  in  the 
slave  legislation  of  the  province,  although  there  were,  of  course,  harsh 
clauses.  Blacks  received  lashes  for  all  misdemeanors  for  which  whites 
were  fined.  Intermarriage  of  the  races  was  prohibited  under  heavy, 
penalties :  the  maxim  partus  sequitur  ventrem  was  rigidly  enforced, 
and  the  negroes  were  buried  in  separate  graveyards  outside  the  towns. 
The  rights  of  property  in  slaves  were  scrupulously  guarded  by  the 
government ;  but  the  general  character  of  the  laws  was  mild,  and 
slaves  had  some  security  for  life  and  limb.  The  murder  of  a  slave 
was  punishable  with  death,  although  public  sentiment  would  not 
sustain  the  infliction  upon  a  master  of  such  a  penalty.  Whippings 
were  generally  administered  by  public  officers  at  the  jails,  on.  the 
request  of  the  owners.  More  important  than  anything  else  were  the 
steady  efforts  of  the  Assembly  during  the  eighteenth  century  to  stop 
the  importation  of  slaves  by  means  of  a  prohibitory  duty,  and  they  per- 

16 


242  HISTORY  OF  THE 

sisted  in  this  policy,  despite  the  opposition  of  England,  until  they  final 
ly  obtained  complete  success.  Slaves  were  still  sold  in  open  market, 
and  driven  in  gangs  to  the  southward ;  but  cargoes  of  human  beings 
ceased  to  be  landed  in  Philadelphia  some  years  before  the  Revolution, 
and  the  general  treatment  of  slaves  was,  in  everyday  practice,  mild  and 
humane.  The  constant  manumission  by  individuals  either  by  will  or 
during  their  life  increased  the  class  of  free  blacks,  to  whom  the  laws 
gave  ample  and  adequate  protection.  They  were  better  than  the  same 
class  in  the  southern  States,  and  in  a  few  exceptional  cases  were  men 
of  ability  ;  but  as  a  rule  they  were  idle  and  shiftless,  sometimes  dis 
orderly  and  turbulent,  and  it  was  usual  for  the  masters  to  pension 
their  freedmen  in  order  to  prevent  their  becoming  a  burden  upon  the 
community.1 

The  indented  white  servants  in  Pennsylvania  formed  a  much  larger 
and  more  important  portion  qf  the  population  than  the  slaves,  whom 
they  assisted  in  driving  out  by  their  own  greater  cheapness.  They 
were  chiefly  Irish  and  German  redemptioners,  who  sold  themselves 
to  pay  their  passage,  and  transported  convicts,  who  at  last  became  so 
numerous  and  troublesome  that  laws  were  passed  to  prevent  their  im 
portation.  There  were  also  among  these  bond-servants  many  waifs 
from  the  London  streets — children  sold  by  their  parents,  and  unhap 
py  beings  who  had  been  kidnapped  and  exported  sometimes  to  fur 
ther  criminal  schemes.  Lord  Altham  was  of  this  latter  description, 
and  romances  were  written  by  convicts  and  personations  attempted  of 
those  who  had  been  wrongfully  forced  into  servitude,  as  the  easiest 
method  of  disposing  of  them.  The  condition  of  indented  servants 
was  unenviable  enough ;  but  it  was  better  in  Pennsylvania  than  in 
the  southern  colonies.  They  were  more  humanely  treated,  and  bet 
ter  fed  and  clothed,  and  the  laws  did  not  leave  them  utterly  at  their 
master's  mercy.  They  could  not  be  sold  out  of  the  province  with 
out  their  own  consent;  and  they  could  not  be  sold  at  all  except  be 
fore  a  justice  of  the  peace.  The  term  of  servitude  was  four  years; 
and  if  they  had  been  faithful  they  were  entitled  not  only  to  a 

'  As  to  slavery  in  Pennsylvania,  see  Kalm,  i.,  44,  387,  and  ff. ;  Hist.  Soc.  Coll., 
i.,  262;  Pennsylvania  Laws,  1700,  1710,  1724,  1761,  1771,  1773;  Hist.  Soc.  Coll., 
Republ.,  i.,  Bettle,  Negro  Slavery  in  Pennsylvania ;  Watson's  Annals,  i.,  201,  and 
ii. ;  Smith,  Hist,  of  Delaware  County,  1760 ;  Col.  Records,  i.,  1707 ;  xi.,  1779  ;  Mag 
azine  Amer.  Hist.,  i.,  231.  In  Delaware;  Acrelius;  Rochefoucauld,  ii.,  272;  Bris- 
got,  Free  Blacks,  238 ;  Kalm,  i.,  394 ;  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  ii.,  pt.  ii.,  Watson,  Country 
Towns,  Wilmington. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  243 

full  discharge,  but  to  a  suit  of  clothes  and  some  agricultural  tools. 
They  received  five  days  additional  servitude  for  every  day's  absence 
by  flight,  and  were  whipped  for  theft  at  the  cart-tail.  There  was  a 
severe  penalty  inflicted  if  they  married  without  their  master's  con 
sent;  and  women  having  bastard  children  were  punished  by  addi 
tional  servitude.  Any  one  who  concealed  a  runaway  servant,  or  who 
traded  with  them,  was  liable  to  a  heavy  fine.  Many  of  them  turned 
out  well  after  emancipation,  owing  to  the  mildness  of  their  treatment. 
The  free  servants  who  engaged  by  the  year  were  a  respectable  class, 
and  were  sufficiently  well  paid  to  lay  up  money  for  a  wedding  outfit. 
They  formed  a  comparatively  small  body,  but  were  numerous  enough 
to  remove  in  some  measure  the  disgrace  attendant  upon  service  of 
any  kind  in  the  purely  slave  provinces.1 

From  these  classes,  or  rather  from  the  first  two,  the  criminals  and 
paupers  were  recruited.  Crime  was  probably  no  more  common  in 
Pennsylvania  than  in  the  other  colonies, but  pauperism  certainly  was; 
and  both  subjects  were  better  understood  and  more  thoughtfully  dealt 
with  than  elsewhere  in  America.  In  almost  every  English  colony  some 
new  scheme  of  social  regeneration  was  attempted,  and  even  the  sober- 
minded  Quakers  were  touched  with  the  infection  of  Utopian  theories, 
and  believed  that  they  could  overcome  crime  by  fine,  restitution,  and 
imprisonment,  without  resort  to  the  methods  then  in  vogue.  This  was 
the  system  founded  by  Penn,  under  which  murder  was  the  only  capital 
offence,  and  it  was  so  far  in  advance  of  its  time,  and  in  details,  indeed, 
of  what  was  practicable,  that  failure  was  inevitable  from  the  outset. 
It  is  sad  as  well  as  instructive  to  see  how  this  benevolent  plan  went 
to  pieces  under  the  harsh  pressure  of  circumstances.  The  liberal  spirit 
of  the  founders  which  drew  settlers  was  in  itself  a  chief  cause  of  its 
downfall,  for  many  of  the  new-comers  were  of  a  very  low  class,  and 
brought  crime  and  poverty  with  them.  The  curse  of  pirates  and 
smugglers,  who  infested  the  American  coasts,  fell  heavily,  also,  upon 
Pennsylvania.  These  outlaws  brought  trade  and  specie  to  the  strug 
gling  colonists,  whose  virtue  was  not  proof  against  the  temptation. 
The  pirate  Evans  owned  land  in  Philadelphia,  and  the  famous  Black- 
beard  traded  in  its  shops;  while  even  the  family  of  Punn's  deputy, 
Markham,  was  mixed  up  with  these  illicit  dealings.  The  scandal  and 

1  As  to  indented  servants  and  free  blacks,  see  Kalm,  i.,  29,  387,  and  ff. ;  Penn 
sylvania  Laws,  1700,  1701,  1705,  1722;  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  v.,  Sargent,  Braddock's 
Expedition,  Introd. ;  Watson,  i.  and  ii. ;  Smith,  Hist,  of  Delaware  County ;  Col. 
Records,  xi.,  1777. 


244  HISTORY  OF  THE 

injury  which  this  caused  to  the  province  led  finally  to  strenuous  meas 
ures  on  the  part  of  the  Assembly,  and  piracy  was  suppressed,  but  not 
wholly  until  twenty-five  years1  had  elapsed. 

Besides  this  particular  evil,  vice  in  general  increased  under  the  influ 
ence  of  a  large  immigration  and  the  growth  of  towns.  The  Quakers 
attempted  to  meet  the  difficulty  by  proclamations  and  laws  against  vice 
and  every  form  of  immorality,  from  murder  down  to  scolding,  smok 
ing  in  the  streets,  and  working  on  Sunday,  thereby  trying  to  reach  a 
class  of  offences  which  legislation  cannot  deal  with  directly.  Their  own 
morals,  too,  began  to  relax  in  the  second  generation.  William  Penn, 
the  younger,  not  only  went  over  to  the  Church  of  England,  but,  after 
the  fashion  of  young  gentlemen  in  London,  raised  a  riot  in  the  quiet 
Philadelphia  streets,  wrenched  off  knockers,  beat  the  watch,  and  was 
finally  arrested  and  brought  into  court,  where  the  matter  was  hushed 
up  and  the  watch  reprimanded.  At  last  the  new  theory  of  criminal  leg 
islation  was  abandoned,  in  the  year  1718.  Workhouses  and  jails  were 
established,  the  number  of  capital  offences  was  increased  from  one  to 
fourteen ;  every  felony,  except  larceny,  was  made  capital  on  a  second 
offence,  and  matters  went  on  in  Pennsylvania  in  the  ordinary  fashion 
of  that  day.3 

At  the  time  of  the  Revolution,  while,  as  compared  with  England,  the 
amount  of  crime  was  trifling,  it  was  as  compared  with  the  other  col 
onies  very  considerable;  and  although  infrequent,  there  was  much  vari 
ety.  About  the  middle  of  the  century  there  was  a  good  deal  of  hang 
ing  for  house-breaking,  horse-stealing,  and  counterfeiting.  Highway 
robbery  was  not  unknown,  and  informers  were  tarred  and  feathered  in 
the  back  counties  by  a  population  loyal  to  the  cause  of  untaxed  liquors. 
In  Philadelphia  the  disorders  inaugurated  by  young  Penn  broke  out 
at  short  intervals,  assuming  not  infrequently  the  proportions  of  a  dan 
gerous  riot.  After  the  French  war  the  town  was  thrown  into  a  state 
of  alarm  by  assaults  with  knives  upon  women  who  ventured  out  after 
dark.  The  habit  of  rioting  spread  to  the  other  towns,  and  the  brutal 
massacre  by  the  Scotch-Irish  "  Paxton  boys  "  of  the  Indians  at  Cones- 

1  Pirates ;  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  iv.,  1702  ;  Watson's  Annals,  i.,  120,  and  ii. ;  Smith,  Hist, 
of  Delaware  County,  1700 ;  Col.  Records,  ii.,  1700 ;  iii.,  1717, 1718, 1732 ;  Hist.  Rec. 
of  Pennsylvania. 

2  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  i.,  62,  260,  262;  Pennsylvania  Laws,  1700,  1701, 1705, 1718; 
Hist.  Soc.,  iv.,  1704,  Affair  of  W.  Penn,  Junior;  Watson,  i.,  1705;  Col.  Rec.,  i., 
1697,  Letter  from  W.  Penn,  1704,  W.  Penn,  Junior's,  case;  Smith,  Hist,  of  Dela 
ware  County,  decrease  of  morality  in  Quakers  of  second  generation. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  245 

toga  was  the  most  notorious  result  of  this  turbulent  disposition.  The 
rioters  and  the  criminals  were  almost  wholly  Irish.  Not  one  native  or 
Englishman  was  found  in  any  ten  of  the  inmates  of  jails,  and  the  un 
fortunate  prominence  of  Pennsylvania  in  this  respect  was  attributable 
to  the  character  of  a  large  portion  of  her  immigrants. 

Rough  and  disorderly  as  were  the  back  counties,  they  did  not  de 
velop  the  immorality  which  grew  up  in  Philadelphia  as  one  of  the  al 
most  inseparable  concomitants  of  town  life.  Drinking  was  the  curse 
of  every  part  of  the  province;  but  in  Philadelphia  duelling,  although 
strongly  discountenanced,  was  more  or  less  practised  even  by  the  cler 
gy,  and  there  is  record  of  one  reverend  gentleman  who  was  killed  by 
a  cornet  of  horse.  Lotteries,  at  first  frowned  upon,  came  to  be  the 
regular  and  recognized  method  of  raising  money  for  churches  and  pub 
lic  improvements,  afforded  an  ample  opportunity  for  general  gambling, 
and  offered  apparently  the  principal  if  not  the  only  occasion  for 
this  sort  of  dissipation.  In  no  respect  were  the  Quakers  more  active 
than  in  their  efforts  to  suppress  all  offences  of  a  sexual  nature.  The 
early  laws  regulating  marriage  were  detailed  and  strict  in  the  extreme, 
and  sharp  measures  were  taken  against  all  "  lewd  women."  This  legis 
lation  appears  to  have  been  effective.  Prostitutes  there  were,  of  course, 
in  Philadelphia;  but  they  were  only  to  be  found  along  the  wharves 
and  in  the  sailors'  dens.  The  policy  was, .in  fact,  supported  by  public 
opinion.  In  the  country  a  couple  whose  child  was  born  too  soon  after 
marriage  were  forced  to  stand  at  the  whipping-post ;  and  in  the  Scotch- 
Irish  communities  those  detected  in  illicit  intercourse  were  compelled 
to  make  public  confession  of  their  sin  in  church,  concluding  with  the 

words : 

"  For  my  own  game  have  done  this  shame, 
Pray  restore  me  to  my  lands  again." 

The  system  of  punishments  conforming  to  the  common  theory  of 
the  day  relied  principally  upon  "  lashes  well  laid  on."  Men  and  wom 
en  were  whipped  for  stealing,  for  bastards,  and  for  all  small  offences. 
The  stripes  were  inflicted  upon  the  market-day,  and  in  the  market 
place,  where  stood  the  whipping-post,  which  was  a  great  source  of  in 
terest  to  the  crowd,  but  fell  far  short  of  the  pillory  as  a  popular  amuse 
ment.  The  wretched  criminals  were  placed  in  the  pillory,  the  popu 
lace  gathered  round,  the  price  of  eggs  rose,  and  they  were  pelted  and 
abused  from  morning  till  night;  while  simple  vagrants  were  turned 
loose  and  pelted  and  hunted  out  of  town.  Criminals  who  could  not 
pay  fines  were  sold  as  servants  for  the  public  benefit.  As  late  as  the 


246  HISTORY  OF  THE 

year  1731  a  woman  was  burnt  at  the  stake  for  the  murder  of  her  hus 
band,  and  death  was  the  penalty  for  many  comparatively  trifling  of 
fences.  In  1772  even,  the  punishment  for  burning  the  State-house  was 
death,  and  for  breaking  into  it  the  pillory,  lashes,  and  imprisonment. 
The  result  of  the  constant  infliction  of  the  death  penalty  led  gradu 
ally  to  its  evasion,  as  it  did  in  England,  and  to  its  ultimate  abolition. 
•But,  although  the  early  schemes  of  the  Quakers  had  no  effect  upon 
penalties,  they  bore  good  fruit  in  the  matter  of  prisons  and  prison 
discipline.  In  the  year  1732  prisoners  were  kept  in  filthy  cells — 
usually  under  the  court-house — naked,  and  covered  with  vermin.  At 
the  period  of  the  Revolution  the  prisons  of  Philadelphia  and  the  sys 
tem  of  management  were,  on  the  testimony  of  foreign  observers,  the 
best  in  the  world.  In  this  direction  genuine  progress  had  been  made, 
and  it  was  due  wholly  to  the  humane  principles  of  the  Quakers.1 

The  immigration  to  Pennsylvania  was  more  fruitful  of  pauperism 
than  crime,  and  the  laws  are  full  of  attempts  to  stop  by  legislation  the 
coming  of  "poor  and  impotent  persons"  into  the  province.  The  un 
limited  opportunities  of  the  new  land  did  much  to  check  the  spread 
of  pauperism,  and  in  the  country  districts  there  was  little  or  none. 
Such  as  there  was  in  the  province  was  concentrated  in  Philadelphia  and 
its  immediate  neighborhood,  and  the  government  endeavored  to  deal 
with  it  systematically  and  thoroughly.  In  Philadelphia  overseers  of 
the  poor  were  to  be  appointed  by  the  mayor  and  two  justices,  and  in 
the  borough  to  be  elected  by  the  freeholders.  These  overseers  were 
to  lay  rates  to  be  levied  like  taxes;  poor  children  were  to  be  bound 
out  to  service  by  the  workhouse  managers ;  and  no  person  was  to  be 
entered  upon  the  poor-books  without  an  order  from  two  magistrates. 
The  settlement  laws,  modelled  on  those  of  England,  were  extremely 
strict,  and  paupers  were  obliged  to  wear  a  large  badge  on  their  shoul 
der  to  denote  their  condition  ;  but  the  whole  amount  of  pauperism 

1  As  to  crime,  punishments,  and  prisons  in  Pennsylvania,  see  Crevecosur,  pp.  40, 
67;  Brissot,p.  317;  Abbe  Robin,  p.  95  ;  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  i.,  262, 1744 ;  Pennsylva 
nia  Laws,  1701, 1705, 1745, 1767, 1772 ;  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  ii.,  pt.  ii.,  Watson's  Coun 
try  Towns ;  Ibid.,  iii.,  Hist,  of  Bristol  Borough ;  Ibid.,  iv.,  822  ;  Watson's  Annals, 
i.,  25, 103,  and  ff.,  generally,  1731, 1750, 1760, 1761 ;  ii.,  1698  ;  and  generally  for 
crimes,  lotteries,  duelling,  etc.;  Rupp,  Hist.  Lancaster  County,  1739  ;  Smith,  Hist. 
Delaware  County,  1690,  1693,  1743 ;  Chambers,  A  Tribute  to  Irish  and  Scotch 
Settlers  ;  The  Quaker  Unmasked  ;  Col.  Rec.,  iii.,  1726 ;  vii.,  1756, 1762  ;  ix.,  1765 ; 
Hazard,  Pennsylvania  Archives,  1737, 1773  ;  Rochefoucauld,  ii.,  336,  377  ;  Penn 
sylvania  Hist.  Mag.,  i.,  Black's  Journal,  Wilmington ;  Wansey,  p.  157. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  247 

was  comparatively  trifling,  and  the  system  shows  a  progressive  public 
opinion.1 

Another  matter  of  morals,  more  directly  connected,  perhaps,  with 
the  condition  of  trade  than  anything  else,  was  the  standard  of  finan 
cial  honesty,  and  here  we  find  a  marked  departure  from  the  loose  deal 
ing  and  indiscriminate  debts  of  the  southern  provinces.  There  were 
on  the  statute-book  the  customary  laws  to  regulate  interest,  and  acts 
characteristic  of  the  American  colonies,  which  released  debtors  on  a  full 
assignment  of  their  property.  The  colony  was  also  cursed  heavily  with 
the  paper-money  delusion,  of  which  large  amounts  were  emitted ;  but 
iu  other  respects  the  commercial  spirit  was  predominant,  and  the  stand 
ard  of  business  morality  sound.  Creditors'  rights  were  fully  protect 
ed,  and  careful  provision  was  made  to  prevent  fraud  under  the  acts 
for  the  relief  of  debtors.  The  aristocratic  tendency  cropped  out  cu 
riously  in  a  law  of  the  year  1724,  which  permitted  freeholders  of 
fifty  pounds  to  be  arrested  only  on  suit  of  the  King,  or  on  refusal 
to  give  security.2  The  people  were  honest;  the  general  tone  was 
sound  in  matters  of  morals;  there  was  no  sympathy  with  crime  or 
frauds  on  creditors ;  arid  failures  were  a  matter  of  deep  and  general 
regret. 

The  enlightened  spirit  of  the  Quakers  in  matters  of  social  economy 
and  improvement  was  strongly  shown  in  their  efforts  to  better  the 
condition  of  the  sick  and  insane  by  private  as  well  as  public  benev 
olence.  In  Philadelphia  was  the  only  lunatic  asylum  in  America, 
where  an  attempt  at  least  was  made  to  alleviate  the  condition  of  this 
unhappy  class,  rendered  doubly  miserable  by  the  treatment  they  usual 
ly  were  subjected  to  at  that  period ;  and  in  this  respect,  as  in  prison 
management,  Pennsylvania  was  more  advanced  than  Europe.  Out 
side  of  Philadelphia  there  was  also  a  large  brick  hospital  for  men  and 
women,  to  which  was  attached  a  reform  school.  Efforts  were  made, 
too,  to  combat,  by  proper  sanitary  regulations,  the  introduction  of  in 
fectious  diseases.  There  was  a  good  soldiers'  home,  and  various  so 
cieties  existed  for  the  furtherance  of  philanthropic  objects,  and  for 
the  care  of  the  poor,  aged,  and  infirm.  All  these  matters  of  public 
health  and  morals  show  in  Pennsylvania  a  much  greater  progress  in 

1  As  to  pauperism,  see  Pennsylvania  Laws,  1738,  1743,  1765, 1771 ;  Poor  Law, 
cited  in  text,  Watson,  ii.,  1719;  Col.  Rec.,  iv.,  1738;  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  8 ;  ii.,272; 
Michaux,  p.  20. 

2  Pennsylvania  Laws,  1700,  1705,  1723,  1724, 1730, 1731 ;  Watson,  i.,  174  and 
ff. ;  Ibid.,  ii.,  Paper  Money,  1773 ;  Burnaby,  p.  90. 


248  HISTORY  OF  THE 

questions  of  social  science  than  can  be  found  in  any  of  her  sister 
colonies.1 

The  life,  habits,  and  manners  of  the  people  varied  greatly.  Be 
tween  the  inhabitants  of  the  frontier  and  those  of  Philadelphia  great 
differences  necessarily  existed ;  and  between  these  extremes  were  the 
different  classes  of  farmers,  ranging  from  the  pioneer  settlers  of  the 
backwoods  to  the  great  landholders  of  the  eastern  counties.  The  life 
of  the  backwoodsmen,  contrasting  strongly  with  that  of  the  denizens 
of  the  capital,  was  rude  and  simple  in  the  extreme.  The  pioneers 
cleared  a  little  tract  in  the  forest,  began  to  farm  in  a  rough  sort  of 
fashion,  and  hunted,  and  traded  with  the  Indians.  A  log-house  of 
the  simplest  construction  gave  shelter  to  the  settler  and  his  family. 
The  men  dressed  in  hunting-shirts  and  leggings,  the  women  in  bed 
gowns  and  linsey  petticoats,  while  young  and  old  went  barefoot  in 
warm  weather.  The  two  bare  rooms  were  festooned  with  the  gar 
ments  of  the  family;  the  utensils  were  of  pewter;  china,  glass,  and 
silver  were  unknown,  and  the  furniture  was  all  of  home  manufacture. 
**  Hog  and  hominy  "  were  the  principal  articles  of  food,  varied,  when 
the  chase  proved  fortunate,  by  roast  venison.  The  amusements  were 
as  rude  as  the  appliances  of  comfort.  There  was  much  drinking  on 
all  occasions,  wild  dancing,  and  rough  sports ;  but  the  great  event  was 
a  marriage.  The  widely  scattered  neighbors  then  gathered  from  all 
sides  to  fell  trees,  shape  logs,  and  build  the  one  room,  called  by  a 
stretch  of  courtesy  the  house  of  the  young  couple.  Then  followed 
the  house-warming,  with  unlimited  drinking  and  dancing.  The  new 
ly-married  pair  withdrew  at  an  early  hour  from  the  scene  to  the  attic, 
where  pork  and  cabbage  were  liberally  supplied  to  them  by  the  com 
pany  below,  who  kept  up  the  festivities  with  enduring  zeal.  At  all 
public  meetings  there  was  a  good  deal  of  pretty  savage  fighting, 
and  the  border  conflicts  between  the  Irish  and  Germans  make  a 
dark  chapter  in  the  colonial  annals  of  Pennsylvania.  At  one  time 
the  former,  under  the  lead  of  Cresap,  endeavored  systematically  to 
drive  their  more  thrifty  and  industrious  rivals  from  the  western 
country ;  and  another  bloody  struggle,  extending  over  twenty  years, 
was  caused  by  the  efforts  of  Connecticut  men  to  settle  in  Wyoming. 
This  came  at  times  to  open  and  regular  war  with  the  government, 
and  resulted  in  the  victory  of  the  hardy  intruders,  and  the  estab- 

1  Smyth,  ii.,  809 ;  Abb6  Robin,  p.  96 ;  Brissot,  pp.  167, 176  ;  Burnaby,  pp.  77,  95  ; 
Pennsylvania  Laws,  1770 ;  Col.  Records,  iv.,  1741, 1742 ;  Rochefoucauld,  ii.,  377. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  249 

lishment  of  the  democratic  government  of  the  New  England  town 
ship.1 

Passing  from  the  rude  outposts  of  civilization  toward  the  east,  we 
come  upon  the  great  farming  class  which,  in  all  its  varieties,  formed 
the  bulk  and  the  strength  of  the  Pennsylvanian  population.  The 
farms  near  the  border  partook  to  a  certain  extent  of  the  character 
of  backwoods  clearings,  and  their  occupants  were  rather  rough  in  life 
and  habits.  This  was  the  region  where  the  continual  contest  went 
on  with  the  "  accursed  Irish,"  as  their  German  opponents  styled  them. 
Here,  too,  the  Irish  brought  on  themselves  the  hostility  of  the  gov 
ernment,  which  forbade  them  to  settle  in  York  or  Lancaster,  and  at 
tempted  to  remove  them  to  the  west.  From  this  field  they  carried 
their  quarrels  to  the  Assembly,  and  divided  the  legislature  into  two 
parties — on  one  side  the  Quakers  and  Germans,  on  the  other  the  rest 
of  the  English  and  the  Irish,  who  succeeded,  usually,  in  obtaining  the 
upperhand.2 

But  these  outlying  settlements,  with  their  feuds  and  struggles,  were 
not  the  types  of  the  agricultural  population.  The  Pennsylvania  farm 
ers  belonged,  as  a  rule,  to  the  substantial,  permanent,  and  best  class 
of  freeholders.  They  were,  for  the  period,  scientific  and  economical 
farmers,  and  thoroughly  well  off,  which  was  especially  the  case  with 
the  Germans,  who  were  thrifty,  temperate,  never  in  debt,  and  whose 
women-folk  labored  in  the  fields.  The  farms,  worked  for  the  most 
part  by  bond  -  servants  or  hired  laborers  who  received  high  wages, 
were  rich,  and  yielded  good  crops.  The  owners  were  themselves  prac 
tical  farmers,  working  in  the  fields  with  their  men,  and  superintending 
everything.  A  Russian  traveller,  going  to  visit  John  Bartram,  found 
the  eminent  botanist  in  the  fields  with  his  farm-hands.  The  style  of 
living  was  not  infrequently  marked  by  a  patriarchal  simplicity.  Mas 
ter  and  men  all  dined  together  in  one  large  room,  where,  at  the  lower 
end  of  the  table,  sat  the  negroes ;  then  came  the  white  servants  and 
the  hired  men ;  and  then  the  master  and  his  family.  Food  was  ev 
erywhere  plentiful  and  simple ;  and  the  dress,  generally  consisting  of 
leather  breeches  and  hempen  jackets,  was  coarse  and  substantial.  In 

1  Backwoods  Life ;  Michaux,  p.  29  ;  The  Olden  Time,  p.  141 ;  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  v., 
Sargent's  Hist,  of  Braddock's  Exped.,  Introd.  Memoir;  Rupp,  Hist,  of  Lancaster 
County ;  Stone's  Hist,  of  Wyoming. 

2  Watson,  ii.,  1743  ;  Rupp,  Hist,  of  Lancaster  County ;  Ibid.,  Hist,  of  Northamp 
ton,  etc. ;  Chambers,  Defence  of  Scotch  and  Irish ;  Etat  Present  de  la  Pennsylva- 
nie. 


250  HISTORY  OF  THE 

the  eastern  counties  were  the  Quaker  farms,  models  of  neatness  and 
well-being,  where  the  houses  were  usually  of  brick,  thoroughly  built, 
and  plastered  and  papered ;  the  furniture  heavy  and  well  made ;  the 
linen  white,  and  the  glass  and  china  of  good  quality.  On  every  farm 
honey  was  made  and  cattle  raised,  while  large  orchards  clustered  about 
the  houses,  protected  only  by  hurdles,  and  open  to  the  wayfarers,  who 
plucked  the  fruit  unmolested.  In  the  east  there  were  also  gardens, 
abounding  in  every  sort  of  vegetable ;  and  the  estates,  not  only  of  the 
wealthy  but  of  the  prosperous  farmers,  had  each  their  fish-pond.1 
The  farms  were  scattered  through  the  forest — here  a  group  of  two  or 
three,  and  then  again  a  single  clearing,  but  never  at  great  distances 
from  each  other  in  the  older  settlements.  Near  Philadelphia  the  farm 
houses  changed  to  handsome  villas,  and  here  and  there  were  great 
manors,  of  which  the  most  famous  was  Penn's  seat  at  Pennsbury,  with 
a  large  mansion-house  richly  furnished.  Keith's  house,  which  was  an 
other  of  the  same  class,  was  sixty  feet  front,  wainscoted  throughout, 
with  large  rooms  and  a  broad  oak  staircase.  Baron  Stiegel's  house 
at  Mannheim  was  built  of  imported  brick,  and  had  a  private  chapel, 
while  over  the  high  wainscots  landscapes  were  painted  or  tapestry 
hung  on  the  walls,  and  the  fireplaces  were  decked  with  porcelain  tiles. 
Other  leading  men,  like  Logan,  had  great  estates,  and  fine  houses  of  a 
similar  character. 

The  farming  class  was  throughout  one  of  great  prosperity.  Mar 
riage  was  young,  and  very  fruitful.  Sons  were  easily  provided  for, 
and  daughters  soon  married.  The  people  were  temperate  and  healthy, 
infant  mortality  not  large,  and  the  increase  of  population  rapid. 
Tradesmen  in  the  small  towns  made  money  quickly,  and  would  in 
sure  fortune  to  industrious  children  by  establishing  them  on  a  farm 
in  the  neighborhood.  The  rapid  material  development  of  Pennsylva 
nia  may  be  measured  by  the  growth  of  means  of  transportation  from 
rude  sleds  of  the  early  days  to  nine  thousand  wagons  employed  in  the 
farm  service  at  the  close  of  the  French  war.a 

Luxury  was  almost  unknown,  although  solid  comfort  abounded. 

1  Cre>ecoeur,  pp.  1  and  ff.,  110 ;  Brissot,  pp.  154,  287 ;  Kalm,  i.,  70,  87,  124, 149, 
216, 307  ;  Memoirs  of  Elkanah  Watson,  p.  31 ;  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  8 ;  Hist.  Soc.  Coll., 
ii.,  pt.  ii.,  Watson,  Country  Towns ;  Ibid.,  xi.,  Acrelius ;  Ibid,  i.,  Watson's  Account 
of  Bucks,  etc. 

*  Burnaby,  pp.  75,  86  ;  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  i.,  Mooreland,  pp.  197  and  ff. ;  Ibid.,  Repub- 
lication,  Keith's  House ;  Ibid.,  ix.,  Penn's  House ;  Pennsylvania  Hist.  Mag.,  i.,  68, 
Stiegel's  House ;  Watson's  Annals,  i.,  19 ;  ii. ;  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  29,  32 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  251 

The  daily  life  aod  habits  remained  primitive  until  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  when  a  marked  change  began.  Tea  and  coffee 
were  then  introduced,  and  many  of  the  worthy  country  people  boiled 
the  leaves  of  the  former  and  ate  them  with  butter.  Straw  carpets, 
too,  began  to  make  their  appearance,  but  were  strongly  opposed  by 
old  house-keepers,  who  protested  that  they  gathered  dust,  and  that 
the  bare  sanded  floor  alone  was  decent.  The  Swedish  beer,  the  Eng 
lish  ale,  and  the  brandy  of  the  early  settlers  were  gradually  replaced  by 
punch,  liquors,  and  wines  of  every  variety,  and  the  same  changes  made 
themselves  felt  in  their  amusements.  In  early  times  the  great  festivals 
were  the  weddings.  Then  the  rare  finery  was  put  on,  and  there  was 
a  great  deal  too  much  drinking,  and  "vain  practice"  of  firing  guns, 
condemned  at  Quaker  meeting,  and  games  and  dances  of  a  very  loose 
sort,  presenting  scenes  apparently  not  unlike  the  famous  "  Kermesse  " 
of  Rubens.  Gradually  this  sobered  down.  Weddings  came  to  be  held 
generally  at  the  house,  and  only  the  poor  were  married  and  proclaimed  in 
church ;  while  the  riotous  feasting  diminished  and  disappeared,  or  drift 
ed  away  to  the  borders  of  the  province.  With  the  last  ceremonies  of 
death  the  same  rule  held  true.  The  bodies  were  still  borne  out  through 
the  woods  on  men's  shoulders,  and  laid  quietly  and  simply  in  mother 
earth,  but  the  subsequent  eating  and  drinking  declined. 

Other  customs  held  their  own  better.  The  rare  events  of  country 
life  were  seized  upon  in  the  recurring  seasons  and  enjoyed  to  the  full. 
Seed-time  and  harvest,  husking  and  cider-pressing,  house-raising  and 
vendues,  shooting -matches,  sleighing,  and  Christmas  sports,  were  al 
ways  the  occasions  of  social  gatherings.  There  was  a  good  deal  of 
drinking,  and  still  more  dancing,  and  in  every  hamlet  the  fiddler  was 
an  important  personage.  Vendues  and  fairs,  legal  and  illicit,  drew 
all  the  youth  of  both  sexes  to  the  little  towns  for  a  day  of  boister 
ous  fun,  terminating  frequently  in  fist  fights  of  a  rather  brutal  char 
acter. 

In  such  a  community,  simple  in  tastes  and  habits,  equal  in  fort 
une  and  never  idle,  there  was  little  place  for  a  strong  aristocracy ; 
and  yet  the  aristocratic  principle  prevailed  in  gentle  fashion  in  all 
the  older  settlements,  and  there  was  a  simple,  conservative,  country 
respect  for  superiors  everywhere  apparent.  Each  village  had  its 
"  squire,"  the  local  magnate  and  magistrate,  looked  up  to  by  all,  who 
rode  or  walked  about  with  cocked  hat  and  powdered  wig,  broad  ruf 
fles  and  gold-headed  cane,  or  who  sat  at  the  nearest  inn,  where  he  tried 
the  petty  offenders  of  the  neighborhood  and  dispensed  substantial 


252  HISTORY  OF  THE 

justice.1  The  people  were  eminently  social,  and,  despite  the  hard  trav 
elling,  visited  each  other  continually.  Almost  all  journeys,  great  and 
small,  were  made  on  horseback.  Men  and  women  rode  to  church  and 
to  market.  The  bride  went  to  the  wedding  on  a  pillion  behind  her 
father,  and  returned  seated  on  another  behind  her  husband.  Some  time 
before  the  Revolution  chaises  began  to  come  into  use  ;  but  the  roads 
were  so  bad,  even  in  the  neighborhood  of  Philadelphia,  that  it  was 
pleasanter  to  ride  for  seven  days  to  Pittsburgh  than  to  go  to  the  same 
place  on  wheels.  In  the  eastern  counties  stage  lines  were  established, 
in  1756,  to  go  to  New  York  in  three  days;  and  ten  years  later  an 
other,  known  as  the  "  Flying  Machine,"  was  advertised  to  perform  the 
distance  in  two  days.  Other  lines  of  coaches  to  Baltimore  and  to 
Germantown  sprang  from  this,  and  the  post-chaise  soon  ceased  to 
be  unknown ;  but  although  Pennsylvania  was  imbued  with  the  spirit 
of  trade,  which  did  something  to  facilitate  travel,  the  inns  remained 
deplorably  bad,  except  in  Philadelphia;  and  even  there  most  of  them 
were  simply  ale-houses.  Over  these  taverns  swung  the  signs  of  the 
last  century,  with  heads  of  king  and  generals  upon  them,  and  doggerel 
verses  beneath — an  English  custom  long  since  extinct.  The  fare  af 
forded  by  these  inns  was  far  from  good  ;  and  although  travellers  speak 
of  cleanliness  as  a  virtue  highly  prized  in  America,  yet  the  colonial 
landlords  were  unable  to  understand  why  Europeans  should  object  to 
dining  with  the  landlord  —  usually  a  leading  man  in  the  village,  or 
sleeping  two  in  a  bed,  or  should  desire  such  luxuries  as  fresh  sheets. 
But  if  the  inns  were  poor,  their  deficiencies  were  more  than  made  up 
by  the  genuine  and  universal  hospitality  of  the  country  people.  The 
traveller  might  stop  at  the  first  farm  he  came  to,  and  be  sure  of  as 
hearty  a  welcome  nearly  as  he  would  have  had  at  home.  The  deter 
mination  of  the  people  to  travel  and  move  from  place  to  place,  and 
the  restless  spirit  of  trade,  did  much  more  than  any  rjide  facilities  to 
prevent  the  isolation  which  formed  so  marked  a  feature  in  Virginian 
life.8 


1  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  i.,  Mooreland,  p.  197  and  ff. ;  Ibid.,  Republ.,  Watson's  Account 
of  Buckingham,  etc.,  and  ii.,  pt.  ii.,  Country  Towns  ;  Watson's  Annals,  i.,  19 ;  ii.,  Lo 
cal  Magistrates,  etc. ;  Smith's  Hist,  of  Delaware  County  ;  Hist.  Col.,  in.,  Holm's 
Hist. ;  xi.,  Acrelius ;  Ferris,  Original  Settlements  on  the  Delaware. 

8  Travelling,  etc. ;  Observations  of  John  Bartram,  p.  11 ;  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  68, 
140;  Narr.  of  Prince  de  Broglie,  Magazine  Amer.  Hist,  i.,  231 ;  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  i., 
Mooreland,  p.  197  and  ff. ;  ii.,  Watson's  Country  Towns ;  Huguenot  Family  in  Vir 
ginia,  p.  302;  Michaux,  p.  29 ;  Cre"veco3ur,  p.  72  ;  Chateaubriand,  vii.,  17  ;  Brissot, 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  253 

Despite  all  these  liberalizing  and  enlightening  habits  and  opportu 
nities,  there  was,  owing  to  the  strong  infusion  of  foreign  blood,  more 
superstitious  ignorance  among  the  country  people  of  Pennsylvania 
than  among  those  of  any  other  colony.  The  earliest  instance  ap 
peared  in  a  trial  for  witchcraft  in  the  year  1683.  One  Margaret 
Matson  was  tried,  on  perfectly  trivial  evidence,  for  bewitching  cows 
and  geese,  and  appearing  at  the  foot  of  the  accuser's  bed.  Penn  and 
his  Council  had  the  good  sense  to  find  the  woman  not  guilty  accord 
ing  to  the  terms  of  the  indictment,  but  guilty  of  common  fame  as 
a  witch ;  and  they  bound  her  in  the  sum  of  one  hundred  pounds  to 
good  behavior.1  This  was  the  only  genuine  witch  case  under  the  mild 
Quaker  rule  ;  but  the  statute  of  James  I.  was  in  force,  was  recognized 
by  the  Assembly,  and  received  the  formal  approval  of  George  II.  and 
his  Council.3  The  belief  in  witchcraft,  however,  manifested  itself  in 
other  forms.  About  the  year  1693  presentations  were  made  by  the 
grand -jury  against  astrology,  necromancy,  geomancy,  and  divining- 
rods.3  But  the  law  was  powerless,  and  superstition  flourished,  espe 
cially  among  the  Germans,  down  to  the  time  of  the  Revolution.  Red 
ribbons  were  tied  on  the  horns  of  cattle  to  guard  against  conjurations ; 
divining-rods  were  in  high  repute;  dogs  were  burnt  to  drive  away 
witches ;  love-spells,  charms,  rings,  herbs,  and  the  like,  were  widely 
used;  and  when  the  lightning-rod  appeared  it  was  strongly  resisted, 
and  even  proscribed  by  some  sects.  Second-sight  found  many  believ 
ers,  and  haunted  spots  and  ghost-ridden  houses  were  common  to  every 
hamlet.  So  fertile  a  field  produced  the  usual  crop  of  impostors  and 
swindlers,  who  professed,  after  the  manner  of  modern  quacks  and  spir 
itualists,  to  be  possessed  of  devils  and  spirits,  to  see  ghosts,  to  cure 
diseases,  discover  hidden  treasures,  and  reveal  the  places  where  the 
pirates  buried  their  ill-gotten  gold.  Most  of  these  magicians  were  of 
German  extraction,  and  in  the  early  times  there  were  some  connected 
with  the  fanatical  sects  who  were  not  without  learning.  One  Dr. 
Witt  flourished  as  late  as  the  year  1765,  and  as  astrologer  and  Rosi- 
crucian  did  a  thriving  business.  This  prevalent  superstition  shows  a 
weak  element  among  the  people  of  Pennsylvania,  and  was  one  which 

pp.  219,  362  ;  Wansey,  p.  175  ;  Pennsylvania  Laws,  1710 ;  Hist.  Soc.,  iii.,  Hist.  Bris 
tol  Borough ;  Watson's  Annals,  i.  and  ii. ;  Stage-coaches  and  Taverns,  Col.  Rec.,  i.t 
1697 ;  vii.,  1756. 

1  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  iii.,  Hist,  of  Bristol  Borough,  p.  8,  note ;  Col.  Records,  ii.,  1700. 

2  Watson's  Annals,  i. 

8  Smith,  Hist,  of  Delaware  County  ;  Watson's  Annals,  i. 


254  HISTORY  OF  THE 

it  took  years  of  civilization  to  wholly  eradicate.1  It  indicates,  also,  a 
very  general  ignorance,  which  was  singularly  great  in  a  population  so 
largely  composed  of  the  English  middle  and  dissenting  class,  but 
which,  like  the  superstition,  was  due  undoubtedly  to  the  foreign  im 
migration.  The  Germans  as  a  rule  were  far  behind  the  English  in 
point  of  information,  although  they  produced  some  distinguished 
men,  like  Rittenhouse  and  Muhlenburg ;  and  the  same  held  true  of  the 
Swedes  and  Dutch,  and  in  a  less  degree  of  the  Irish.  The  German 
and  Swedish  pastors  made  great  efforts  to  remedy  this  state  of  affairs 
by  establishing  schools  in  connection  with  the  churches,  but  they 
met  with  little  success.  The  Scotch  and  Irish  Presbyterian  clergy, 
more  active  and  more  zealous,  fared  better,  and  did  good  work  with 
their  country  schools,  known  at  this  time  as  "  log  colleges."  But  the 
general  condition  of  education  in  the  rural  districts  was  wretched  in 
the  extreme.  School-houses  were  few  and  small,  and  rudely  built  of 
logs,  and  even  these  did  not  begin  to  appear  much  before  the  middle 
of  the  eighteenth  century.  The  barest  rudiments  only  were  taught, 
and  those  badly,  and  for  small  fees.  There  was  little  learning,  loose 
order,  and  much  whipping  everywhere.  There  was  no  public  system 
of  schools,  and  education  was  almost  wholly  in  the  hands  of  itinerant 
masters,  who  were  frequently  convicts  and  foreigners ;  and  even  they 
generally  abandoned  a  profession  where  the  fee  of  a  scholar  was  only 
five  shillings  a  quarter.  The  case  was  a  little  better  in  the  towns, 
such  as  Wilmington ;  but  the  educational  efforts  of  the  English,  who 
were  the  governing  race,  seem,  except  in  the  case  of  private  schools 
kept  by  individual  clergymen,  to  have  been  confined  to  the  capital.2 

In  Philadelphia  there  was  much  activity  and  progress  in  education 
from  the  earliest  years  of  the  settlement.  In  the  year  1683,  Enoch 
Flower,  assisted  by  the  municipal  government,  opened  the  first  school ; 
and  this  was  followed  six  years  later  by  a  public  school,  which  was 
sustained  by  the  Quakers,  and  finally  chartered  by  Penn  in  1711.  In 
the  year  1743  the  energy  of  Franklin  produced  a  plan  for  a  universi 
ty,  which  was  abandoned  at  the  time,  but  revived  six  years  later,  when 
p.n  academy,  where  Latin,  English,  and  mathematics  were  taught,  was 

1  Watson's  Annals,  i.  and  ii.;  Hist.  Soc.,  Mooreland,  i.,  197  and  ff. ;  v.,  Sargent's 
Braddock's  Expedition ,  Introd.  Memoir. 

»  Brissot,  p.  290 ;  Hist.  Coll.,  i.,  Mooreland,  p.  197  and  ff. ;  Ibid.,  i.,  Republ.,  Wat 
son's  Country  Towns ;  Rupp,  Hist,  of  Northampton  County ;  Chambers,  A  Tribute 
to  the  Scotch  and  Irish  ;  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  98 ;  Ferris,  Original  Settlements  on  the 
Delaware  ;  Hist.  Soc.,  xi.,  Acrelius. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  255 

opened,  together  with  charity-schools.  The  institution  prospered,  was 
chartered  in  the  year  1755,  and  a  college  was  added,  with  tolerably 
extensive  courses  of  study.  So  great  was  the  need  that  within  seven 
years  there  were  four  hundred  students  in  all  the  departments ;  dor 
mitories  were  built,  subscriptions  raised  in  England  as  well  as  in  the 
province,  and  professors  of  good  character  and  sufficient  learning  were 
employed.  This  was  the  foundation  of  the  University  of  Pennsyl 
vania,  considered  at  the  time  one  of  the  best,  if  not  the  very  best,  in 
the  colonies,  and  drawing  its  students  from  the  whole  province.1 

Philadelphia  was  not  only  the  centre  of  education  in  the  province, 
but  also  of  literature,  arts,  and  science.  The  first  two  were,  of  course, 
still  in  their  infancy,  but  they  had  an  existence  and  the  promise  of  a 
good  future,  while  in  science  the  great  name  of  Franklin  not  only  placed 
Pennsylvania  at  the  head  of  the  colonies,  but  gave  her  a  high  position 
in  the  scientific  world.  The  influence  of  that  remarkable  man  was 
felt,  not  only  in  his  great  discoveries,  in  politics,  and  in  every  form  of 
public  improvement,  but  it  leavened  and  stimulated  the  whole  intel 
lectual  development  of  the  province.  The  early  literary  efforts  here, 
as  elsewhere  in  America,  were  devoted  to  descriptions  of  the  country, 
and  controversial  pamphlets  and  sermons ;  but  even  then  was  to  be 
found  a  promise  of  better  things.  James  Logan,  the  leading  man  in 
the  province,  was  not  only  a  politician,  but  a  scholar  versed  in  many 
languages,  and  the  author  of  a  translation  from  Cicero's  De  Senectute. 
Then  came  Andrew  Bradford,  the  first  printer,  and  the  editor  of  the 
first  newspaper,  with  a  large  book-store  and  bindery,  where  he  pub 
lished  almanacs,  the  popular  literature  of  the  day,  and  sold,  besides 
Bibles,  dictionaries,  and  grammars,  Virgil,  the  Spectator,  Tatler,  Guar 
dian,  and  Fenelon.  His  newspaper  was  at  once  a  source  of  fame  and 
trouble,  for  liberty  of  the  press  was  no  better  understood  in  the  col 
onies  than  in  the  mother  country  at  that  period.  A  very  harmless 
paragraph  about  the  finances  in  the  year  1721  brought  Bradford  be 
fore  the  Council,  whence  he  escaped  with  an  apology  and  a  severe  rep 
rimand.  A  few  years  later  he  was  again  in  custody  for  letters  which 
he  had  allowed  to  appear  in  the  Mercury.  This  time  he  stood  firm, 
was  thrown  into  prison,  refused  to  retract,  the  case  against  him  was 
dropped,  and  he  gained  a  substantial  victory  as  a  defender  of  the 


1  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  Hi.,  Hist,  of  University ;  Smyth,  p.  308  ;  Raynal,  p.  120  ;  Me 
moirs  of  a  Life  in  Pennsylvania,  p.  16  ;  Kalm,  i.,  45  ;  Burnaby,  p.  85 ;  Wallace,  Hist. 
Address,  1872;  Watson's  Annals,  i.  and  ii. 


256  HISTORY  OF  THE 

liberty  of  the  press.  During  Bradford's  career  Franklin  came  upon 
the  scene,  and  began  the  publication  which  first  made  him  fa 
mous.  Around  him  gathered  a  number  of  young  men,  members  of 
his  club,  and  literary  Bohemians  for  the  most  part,  who  wrote  verses 
of  all  degrees  of  merit,  essays  and  political  disquisitions,  and  gave  to 
the  young  press  a  liveliness  and  originality  which  could  not  be  found 
in  any  other  colony.  This  literary  activity  was  believed  to  give  prom 
ise  of  a  great  literary  future,  and  it  certainly  led  to  more  extended 
reading  and  more  ambitious  efforts  at  authorship.  The  Letters  of 
Junius  were  read  in  the  province  as  widely  as  in  England,  and  called 
up  a  crowd  of  imitators,  while  satires  and  epigrams  were  much  in 
vogue,  and  many  fair  translations  from  ancient  writers  found  their 
way  into  print.  But  among  and  outside  of  the  imitators  of  Pope,  of 
the  poetasters,  and  satirists,  and  writers  of  political  tracts  and  squibs, 
were  men  who  did  real  service  to  their  kind,  and  who  gained  and  de 
served  enduring  fame.  At  the  head  of  all  stands  Benjamin  Franklin, 
versatile,  subtle,  acute,  in  some  respects  the  greatest  intellect  the  New 
World  has  yet  produced.  There  is  no  need  to  dwell  upon  his  acts  or 
to  recall  his  writings.  From  "  Poor  Richard  "  and  the  lightning-rod, 
down  to  the  fire  company  and  the  iron  stove,  they  are  all  as  familiar 
as  household  words.  But  among  Franklin's  friends,  and  even  outside 
his  circle,  were  men  who  did  good  work  in  the  world. 

Thomas  Godfrey,  the  glazier,  a  self-taught  mathematician,  invented 
the  quadrant,  while  his  son  produced  the  first  American  drama,  Arta- 
banns  and  Evanthe,  and,  later,  the  Prince  of  Parthia,  modelled  on  Dry- 
den's  Oriental  plays,  and  not  far  short  of  their  very  mediocre  originals 
in  merit.  John  Bartram,  the  simple  Quaker  farmer,  with  deep  love 
of  nature,  careful  observation,  and  patient  study,  won  a  European  rep 
utation  as  a  botanist ;  and  his  son,  William,  followed  in  his  footsteps 
with  considerable  credit.  In  the  year  1732  Rittenhouse  was  born,  and 
in  1768  completed  his  first  orrery.  Public  encouragement  was  not 
lacking,  for  at  the  same  time  the  Assembly  voted  one  hundred  pounds 
for  a  telescope,  and  a  year  later  the  Philosophical  Society  erected  a 
platform  for  the  observation  of  the  transit  of  Venus.  In  the  year  1771 
Rittenhouse  received  three  hundred  pounds  for  his  orrery.  Much,  too, 
was  done  by  the  medical  profession  in  the  way  of  public  instruction : 
and  the  lectures  of  Dr.  Spencer  on  the  e*ye,  and  on  light  and  color, 
accompanied  by  experiments  with  the  microscope,  were  the  fashiona 
ble  entertainments  of  the  day.  The  desire  for  knowledge  ran  strong 
ly  in  the  upper  classes.  There  were  many  private  libraries,  small,  but 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  257 

furnished  with  the  classics  of  the  time  —  Goldsmith,  Fielding,  Don 
Quixote,  Gil  Bias ;  and  the  taste  of  the  community  is  strongly  shown 
by  the  publication  of  Blackstone,  Robertson's  Charles  V.,  and  Fergu 
son's  Essays ;  great  enterprises  for  the  time,  and  carried  through  by 
the  local  publishers.  Booksellers  usually  eked  out  their  income  by 
the  sale  of  more  material  articles,  but  the  character  of  their  stock  of 
books  is  the  important  feature  in  this  connection.  Besides  the  taste 
for  reading,  music  and  painting  were  also  cultivated  by  those  who  had 
leisure,  and  not  without  success.  Philadelphia,  says  the  historian  of 
American  literature,  was  a  literary  centre  of  more  activity  than  any 
except  Boston. 

This  is  apparent  also  in  the  public  press.  Not  only  newspapers 
were  set  on  foot,  but  magazines  and  reviews  were  attempted.  At  the 
time  of  the  Revolution  there  were  two  English  newspapers  and  one 
German  in  the  colony.  They  had  the  latest  and  most  accurate  for 
eign  intelligence  in  detail,  little  local  news,  and  a  correspondence  sup 
plying  the  place  filled  now  by  editorials,  which  was  not  without  merit. 
Philadelphia,  not  only  as  a  great  port,  but  from  its  geographical 
position,  was  the  centre  of  news  on  the  continent.  A  post  was  first 
established  by  Penn  as  soon  as  he  had  founded  his  colony,  which  ran 
at  great  expense,  and  the  delay  of  which  for  six  weeks  by  snow 
caused  the  inhabitants  "  to  pass  the  time  very  melancholy."  In  the 
year  1717  mail-lines  were  opened  to  Virginia  and  Maryland,  and  let 
ters  were  carried  to  the  south  at  enormous  rates  of  payment.  Here, 
too,  was  subsequently  the  head  of  the  whole  continental  postal  sys 
tem,  which  it  was  one  of  Franklin's  greatest  achievements  to  make 
not  only  efficient  but  profitable.  The  city  stood  alone  in  possessing 
two  public  libraries — the  one  founded  by  Franklin,  the  other  by  Lo 
gan.  Both  had  good  collections  of  standard  English  works,  besides 
some  in  French  and  Latin ;  and  Franklin's  contained  also  mathemat 
ical  and  physical  instruments.  Thus  Philadelphia  had  many  advan 
tages  to  offer.  As  the  great  news  centre,  she  was  in  constant  contact 
with  the  world  beyond  the  sea,  whose  thoughts  and  feelings  were 
carried  to  her  doors  by  each  succeeding  packet;  while  the  scientific 
exploits  of  Franklin  brought  pre-eminence  in  one  great  field,  and  the 
literary  activity  and  budding  arts  showed  a  disposition  to  enter  upon 
others.1 


1  Literature,  etc.,  in  Pennsylvania,  see  Raynal,  p.  120 ;  Brissot,  p.  273  ;  Kalm,  i., 
44, 56  ;  Burnaby,  p.  76 ;  Hist.  Soc.,  i.,  196,  423 ;  Wallace,  Hist.  Address,  1872 ;  Phil- 

17 


258  HISTORY  OF  THE 

Such  intellectual  development  indicates  a  social  life  and  habits,  and 
manners  far  more  advanced  than  those  of  the  country  districts  or  of 
the  southern  States.  The  Philadelphians  were  a  trading  community ; 
the  large  land -owners,  supported  by  the  revenues  of  their  estates, 
forming  but  a  small  fraction  of  the  upper  classes,  which  were  com 
posed  in  the  main  of  rich  merchants,  carrying  on  an  extensive  trade, 
and  of  professional  men.  The  middle  classes  were  made  up  of  small 
traders  and  shopkeepers,  and  the  lowest  of  the  laborers,  and  those  who 
followed  the  sea.  There  was  also  a  large  suburban  and  floating  pop 
ulation,  who  came  in  daily  to  business,  or  flocked  in  twice  a  week  to 
the  bustling  market,  and  crowded  the  town,  filling  it  with  life  and 
movement  when  the  great  fairs  were  held. 

Most  of  the  citizens  lived  in  rooms  over  their  shops,  which  were 
tended  by  their  wives  and  daughters;  and  their  daily  life  was  as 
sober,  monotonous,  and  respectable  as  their  Quaker  garb.  They  still 
preserved  the  customs  and  traditions  of  their  founder,  which  were 
rapidly  giving  way  before  the  accumulation  of  wealth,  the  increase 
of  luxury,  and  the  presence  of  ever -increasing  sects,  whose  leading 
tenets  were  not  simplicity  of  dress  or  manners.  But  the  traders  and 
shopkeepers  differed  only  in  degree  from  the  upper  classes,  whose 
mode  of  life  has  been  preserved  for  us  in  many  ways.  The  old 
style  of  living  was  one  of  extreme  simplicity,  but  luxury  began  to 
come  in  rapidly  after  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  when  tea 
and  coffee  came  into  general  use,  the  bare  floors  began  to  be  car 
peted,  and  the  bare  walls  papered.  There  was  in  every  way  plenty  of 
substantial  comfort.  The  houses  were  large,  broad,  with  dormer-win 
dows  and  balconies,  and  usually  in  the  midst  of  pretty  gardens.  The 
rooms  were  low  and  spacious,  with  heavy  wainscots  and  large  open 
fireplaces ;  while  the  furniture  and  silver  were  plain  and  massive,  but 
handsome,  and  often  rich. 

The  luxury  which  began  to  show  itself  in  the  houses  appeared 
much  sooner  in  the  matter  of  dress.  Philadelphia  was  the  social  cen 
tre,  and  the  English  fashions  came  early,  and  were  carried  to  a  great 
height.  Old  men  carried  gold-headed  canes  and  gold  snuffboxes,  and 
had  huge  silver  buttons  on  their  richly-laced  drab  coats  as  a  mark  of 
distinction,  while  men  of  all  ages  wore  vast  wigs,  and  many  rich  velvet 

adelphia  Hist.  Soc.,  Annual  Discourse,  1869  ;  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  i.,  Republ.  Prov.  Lit. ; 
Hist.  Soc.,  ii.,  pt.  ii. ;  ix.,  1769, 1704,  Letters  from  Norris  to  Zachary ;  Hist.  Mag.,  i., 
Black's  Journal ;  Watson's  Annals,  i.,  ii.,  Libraries  and  Newspapers ;  Tyler,  Hist 
of  American  Literature. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  259 

and  silk.  The  young  men  of  fashion  wore  swords  and  laced  hats 
and  coats,  for  which  red  cloth  was  common  even  among  boys.  The 
amount  of  color  in  men's  dress,  according  to  the  fashion  of  the  times, 
is  now  almost  inconceivable.  A  lady,  struck  with  the  appearance  of 
some  gay  fellow  at  a  ball,  addressed  him  in  the  following  lines : 

"  Mine  a  tall  youth  shall  at  a  ball  be  seen, 
Whose  legs  are  like  the  spring,  all  clothed  in  green ; 
A  yellow  ribbon  ties  his  long  cravat, 
And  a  large  knot  of  yellow  cocks  his  hat." 

The  women  dressed  in  the  extreme  of  the  fashion.  Flowered  stuffs 
of  every  variety — brocades,  satins,  velvets,  and  silks — were  much  in 
vogue,  and  hours  were  spent  in  the  construction  of  tall  head-dresses 
and  mounds  of  hair.  They  wore  masks  in  cold  weather,  and  carried 
fans  of  ivory  with  pictured  sides.  Even  the  Quakers  gave  way  ;  and, 
while  the  stricter  members  wore  plain  but  rich  materials,  a  portion  of 
the  sect,  known  as  Wet  Quakers,  yielded  to  the  fascinations  of  pow 
der,  silver  buckles,  and  bright  colors. 

The  men  of  Philadelphia — young  and  old — were  regularly  occu 
pied  with  business  and  trade ;  while  the  women  of  the  family  in  the 
middle  classes  tended  the  shop ;  and  those  of  higher  rank  cared  for 
the  house,  played  the  spinet,  walked  a  great  deal,  and  worked  end 
less  pieces  of  embroidery,  covered  with  impossible  landscapes.  Al 
though  the  life  of  a  trading  town  and  the  constant  presence  of 
strangers  chilled  the  hospitality  which  was  so  marked  in  the  country 
districts,  there  was  a  constant  social  intercourse,  and  an  unfailing  round 
of  amusements  for  both  sexes.  Fishing-clubs  with  pleasant  houses  on 
the  river,  glutton  clubs  for  the  consumption  of  turtle  and  madeira, 
and  social  clubs  abounded.  In  winter  there  was  sleighing  and  skating, 
besides  dancing  parties  and  assemblies,  where  the  social  line  was  strict 
ly  drawn,  as  in  the  case  of  a  young  lady  of  good  position,  who,  having 
married  a  jeweller,  was  forthwith  excommunicated.  In  summer  there 
were  great  fairs,  with  amusements  like  bear  and  bull  baiting,  and  oxen 
roasted  whole,  in  which  all  ranks  joined,  and  for  the  wealthy  there 
were  fishing  and  sailing  parties  and  picnics.  To  theatres  there  was  a 
strong  opposition.  The  first  company,  composed  of  natives,  was  sup 
pressed  in  the  year  1749  by  the  magistrates;  but  five  years  later  an 
English  company  was  licensed,  on  condition  that  their  plays  contained 
nothing  indecent  or  immoral,  and  they  seem  to  have  met  with  success, 
and  to  have  drawn  fashionable  audiences.  In  the  year  1758  a  theatre 
was  built  outside  the  city  limits,  despite  the  relentless  opposition  of 


260  HISTORY  OF  THE 

both  Quakers  and  Presbyterians,  who  took  the  matter  into  the  courts, 
where  permission  was  obtained  for  the  performances  which  thus  be 
came  thoroughly  established.  As  a  rule,  however,  the  spirit  of  the 
Quakers  and  of  the  community  generally  was  very  liberal  in  respect  to 
all  forms  of  amusement,  although  one  of  our  French  allies,  M.  Claude 
Blanchard,  murmured  because  his  landlady  objected  to  cards  on  Sunday. 

There  was  evidently  abundance  of  comfort  and  good-living,  although 
manners  were  in  many  respects  curiously  primitive.  In  summer  the 
young  ladies  always  put  on  full  dress  for  the  evenings,  and  sat  in  the 
porches  of  the  houses,  while  the  young  men  strolled  about  from  house 
to  house  and  made  visits.  Dinner,  and  even  fashionable  dinner-par 
ties,  were  at  twelve  o'clock,  and  in  the  afternoon  calls  were  made,  and 
there  was  much  tea-drinking,  and  at  sundown  supper  was  served.  If 
there  were  no  balls,  the  men  then  went  to  their  clubs,  which  were  quite 
numerous,  and  which  met  at  the  taverns,  where  there  was  more  supper, 
a  great  consumption  of  wine,  and  a  plentiful  flow  of  discussion,  chiefly 
of  a  political  nature.  Marriages,  especially  among  the  Quakers,  were 
always  occasions  of  great  festivity.  The  banns  were  pronounced  at 
two  successive  meetings,  and  on  each  occurrence  there  was  a  recep 
tion  ;  while  the  wedding  entertainment  sometimes  extended  over  two 
days,  during  which  time  there  was  open  house  kept  for  all  comers. 
The  marriages,  however,  were  outdone  by  the  funerals,  which  were 
attended  with  immense  pomp  and  parade.  The  body  was  borne 
from  the  house  by  friends,  and  was  followed  to  the  grave  by  a  long 
procession,  generally  on  horseback,  and  sometimes  numbering  several 
thousands.  Then  ensued  the  usual  eating  and  drinking,  and  distribu 
tion  of  scarfs  and  rings.  The  expense  and  extravagance  became  so 
great  in  this  respect  that  a  strong  effort,  following  the  example  of 
Boston  and  New  York,  was  made  to  stop  the  outlay  at  funerals. 

From  what  can  now  be  gathered,  it  is  evident  that  society  was  agree 
able  in  Philadelphia,  and  manners,  if  not  easy,  pleasant,  and  good-nat 
ured.  "  They  are  as  far  behind  us  in  etiquette,"  says  the  Abbe  Robin, 
"  as  they  are  ahead  of  us  in  legislation ;"  and  the  statement  is  proba 
bly  correct.  However  good  manners  may  have  been,  they  were  tinged 
with  provincialism,  and  were  not  highly  polished.  This  was  equally 
true  of  the  women,  who  were  agreeable,  good-looking,  well-bred,  and 
often  accomplished,  but  who  lacked  the  grace  and  ease  of  Europe. 
But  however  much  elegance  and  refinement  of  manner  may  have 
been  wanting,  fhe  wholesome  virtue  of  a  simple  society  was  still  re 
tained  ;  adultery  was  unknown,  and  gallantry  and  intrigue  had  no 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  261 

existence.  The  women  prided  themselves  on  their  fidelity  to  their 
husbands  and  their  devotion  to  their  children ;  and  the  Frenchmen 
of  the  Revolution,  who  paraded  their  mistresses  in  the  streets,  were 
regarded  with  unfeigned  disgust.  Marriages  were  wholly  from  incli 
nation,  and  there  was  but  little  parental  control  in  such  matters. 
This  simplicity,  as  has  been  said,  did  not  reach  dress  or  amusements, 
nor  the  general  style  of  living  among  the  wealthy.  Besides  hack 
ney-coaches  and  other  conveniences  of  that  sort,  there  were  many 
handsome  private  carriages  and  fine  equipages.  There  were  numer 
ous  slaves  and  servants  in  every  rich  family,  generally  in  livery,  and 
large  studs  of  horses  were  maintained.  In  the  suburbs  were  exten 
sive  tea-gardens,  places  of  great  popular  resort,  where  there  were  fire 
works,  billiards,  and  bowling-greens,  and  where  much  time  was  spent 
in  the  season  of  pleasant  weather.  The  whole  mode  of  life  was  that 
of  a  rich,  comfortable,  and  rather  self-indulgent  trading  community, 
which  grew  apace,  and  where  fortunes  were  easily  acquired.1 

The  political  habits  and  modes  of  thought  differed  widely  in  some 
respects  from  those  of  the  southern  and  eastern  groups,  and  were  typ 
ical  of  the  middle  provinces ;  for  narrow  as  were  the  domestic  politics 
of  all  the  colonies,  they  were  especially  contracted  in  Pennsylvania, 
which  was  due  principally  to  the  Quakers,  who  as  a  sect  struggled 
hard  to  retain  their  supremacy.  The  usual  quarrels  with  the  governors, 
always  pushed  far  in  the  stress  of  war,  were  carried  to  great  extremes 
when  fortified  by  the  peace  principles  of  the  Friends.  In  the  French 
war  the  selfish  supineness  and  indifference  of  Pennsylvania  seem  al 
most  inconceivable  when  we  remember  the  savage  warfare  which 
raged  upon  the  borders,  and  how  the  other  colonies  fought  their 
own  and  England's  battles.  The  Quakers,  who  were  mainly  respon 
sible,  retained  their  power  by  playing  off  the  Germans,  with  whom 
they  were  allied,  against  the  rest  of  the  English  and  the  Scotch  and 

1  For  manners,  customs,  and  amusements,  Watson's  Annals  of  Philadelphia  fur 
nish  an  inexhaustible  store ;  see  also  Smyth,  i.,  808 ;  Abbe  Robin,  pp.  89,  94 ;  Cha 
teaubriand,  vii.,  17, 1»  ;  Brissot,  pp.  160,  270,  271,  272,  276,  303,  324,  344;  Raynal, 
i.,  116 ;  Blanchard's  Journal,  p.  183 ;  Memoirs  of  a  Life  in  Pennsylvania,  pp.  24, 45, 
105 ;  Kalm,i.,  29, 43,  54,  103  ;  Burnaby,  pp.  77,  86,  87 ;  Wansey,  p.  127  ;  Memoirs 
of  Schuylkill  Fishing  Club ;  Hist.  Soc.,  i.,  Mooreland,  p.  197  and  ff.,  367  ;  Bent.  Hist. 
Soc.,  Address  Wash.  House ;  Wallace,  ibid.,  1872 ;  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  ix. ;  Pennsylva 
nia  Hist.  Mag.,  i.,  Black's  Journal  for  Daily  Life ;  also  for  same,  Shippen  Papers, 
edited  by  Thomas  Balch  ;  Hazard,  Archives  of  Pennsylvania,  1754 ;  Elkanah  Wat- 
Bon,  Memoirs ;  Mag.  of  Amer.  Hist.,  i.,  231,  Narr.  of  Prince  de  Broglie ;  Rochefou 
cauld,  ii.,  381,  384,  388  ;  Hist.  Soc.,  ii.,  pt.  ii.,  Watson,  Country  Towns. 


262  HISTORY  OF  THE 

Irish,  who  furnished  a  turbulent  element,  which  formed  a  strong  con 
trast  to  the  peaceable  politics  of  their  opponents.  Election  riots  were 
by  no  means  uncommon,  and  in  the  disposal  of  offices  there  appears 
to  have  been  a  good  deal  of  intrigue  and  corruption  of  the  sort  then 
familiar  in  England.1 

In  regard  to  the  mother  country,  the  people,  Franklin  said,  were 
"docile,  and  led  by  a  thread;"  and  that  the  colony  was  warmly  at 
tached  to  England,  there  is  here,  as  elsewhere,  every  evidence,  as  in  the 
loyal  addresses  called  forth  by  the  death  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  and 
the  defeat  of  the  Pretender ;  but  there  were  also  the  usual  grievances, 
such  as  the  injurious  laws  of  trade,  and  the  attempts  at  impressment, 
while  the  large  number  of  foreigners  did  much  to  weaken  the  bonds. 
All  this  was  enhanced  by  the  conduct  of  the  British,  who  behaved 
with  their  customary  short-sighted  arrogance  to  the  "  Mohairs,"  as 
they  contemptuously  termed  the  Americans,  by  whom  they  were  al 
ways  treated  with  regard  and  respect.  But  there  was  nothing  strong 
or  aggressive  in  the  attitude  of  Pennsylvania,  and  the  Quakers  were 
eminently  conservative  and  slow  in  action.2  The  sense  of  being  a  col 
ony,  and  not  born  to  the  soil,  was  apparently  very  marked.  "  Cette 
societe,"  says  Chateaubriand,  "  sans  aieux  et  sans  souvenirs  ;"3  and 
this  was  to  a  large  extent  true,  not  only  on  account  of  the  foreign 
element,  but  because  of  the  origin  and  character  of  the  people.  The 
memory  of  great  hardships,  of  difficulties  overcome,  of  efforts  for 
great  principles,  which  gave  force  and  character  to  Virginia  and  Mas 
sachusetts,  were  lacking  to  the  middle  provinces.  The  Pennsylvani- 
ans  were  essentially  shopkeepers  and  traders,  prosperous  and  content 
ed,  with  a  loose  social  system  and  a  heterogeneous  population.  Their 
politics  and  their  character  were  conservative  and  at  times  timid ;  and 
when  independence  was  at  stake,  they  were  a  weight  upon  the  action 
of  Virginia  and  Massachusetts,  who  dragged  them  forward  irresistibly 
on  the  inevitable  path.  At  the  period  of  the  adoption  of  the  consti 
tution  their  conservative  tendencies  again  came  into  play,  and  were 
of  vast  importance ;  and  thus  they  continued  the  uncertain  balance 
between  the  great  contending  forces,  social  and  political,  of  their 
southern  and  northern  brethren. 

1  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  xi.,  Acrelius ;  Watson's  Annals,  i.,  ii. ;  Quakers  Unmasked ; 
tftat  Present  de  la  Pennsylvanie ;  Answer  to  a  Brief  Statement;  Col.  Records, iv., 
1742  ;  v.,  1750 ;  Shippen  Papers,  ed.  by  Balch. 

2  Memoirs  of  a  Life  in  Pennsylvania ;  Kalm,  i.,  52  ;  Burnaby,  p.  86  ;  Watson'a 
Annals,  5. ;  Col.  Records,  v.,  1751 ;  Hazard,  Pennsylvania  Archives,  1743. 

8  Chateaubriand,  vii.,  18. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  263 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

NEW  JERSEY  FROM  1664  TO  1765. 

THE  Dutch  from  New  York  were  the  first  to  settle  within  the  bor 
ders  of  New  Jersey,  as  early,  it  is  said,  as  in  the  first  quarter 
of  the  seventeenth  century ;  but  their  settlements  never  grew 
or  reached  an  importance  sufficient  to  give  them  a  place  in  history ; 
and  it  was  not  until  after  the  capture  of  New  Netherlands  by  the  Eng 
lish,  and  the  grant  by  the  Duke  of  York  to  Lord  Berkeley  and 
Sir  George  Carteret,  that  the  province  then  named  New  Jersey 
begins  to  play  a  part  in  American  history.     Gradually  the  conquer 
ing  race  swept  in — Protestants  from  New  York,  Quakers   from  the 
mother  country,  Puritans  from  New  England — and  a  new  state  was 
added  to  the  British  dominions. 

Berkeley  and  Carteret  first  established  a  form  of  government  by 
an  instrument  known  as  the  "  Concessions."     This  scheme  was  a  lib 
eral  one,  assuring  religious  toleration,  and  a  government  composed  of 
Governor  and  Council  appointed  by  the  proprietaries,  and  a  general 
Assembly  chosen  by  the  people.     The  concessions  were  speedily  fol 
lowed  by  the  appointment  of  Philip  Carteret  as  Governor, 
who  went  out  at  once  with  a  body  of  emigrants.     There  was 
some  opposition  from  Nicolls,  Governor  of  New  York,  which  proved 
the  source  of  much  future  trouble ;  but  the  Duke  had  gone  too  far 
to  retreat,  and  Nicolls  was  obliged  to   reluctantly  admit  the  new 
comers,  who  at  once  proceeded  to  allot  the  land  at  Elizabeth,  and 
found  their  towns  and  colony.     There  was  some  difficulty,  also,  with 
the  old  settlers,  but  their  claims  were  compromised,  everything  went 
smoothly,  and  immigrants  began  to  come  in  companies  from  New 
England.     Towns  rapidly  sprang  up,  and  it  was  soon  found  necessary 
to  call  the  representatives  of  the  people  together.     The  first 
Assembly  was  brief  and  harmonious,  and  in  the  criminal  law 
we  see  the  unmistakable  work  of  Puritans,  who  at  once  began  to 


264  HISTORY  OF  THE 

impress  themselves  upon  the  colony.  At  the  very  next  session  came 
the  inevitable  quarrel  between  Assembly  and  executive;  in  this  in 
stance  because  the  Council  insisted  on  sitting  as  a  separate  House, 
instead  of  with  the  Assembly,  where  they  could  be  outvoted.  The 
contest  had  no  result,  and  the  Assembly  adjourned,  not  to  meet  again 
for  seven  years. 

The  controversy,  however,  took  another  shape,  and  passed  to  the 
towns — independent  corporations,  and  full  of  the  New  England 
spirit,  whose  inhabitants  objected  to  paying  quit-rents.     This 
was  sustained  by  the  old  settlers,  who  had  paid  for  their  lands,  and 
had  grants  from  Nicolls ;   and,  finally,  the  disaffected  towns  held  an 
Assembly,  and  chose  a  new  Governor,  James  Carteret,  an  ille 
gitimate  son  of  the  lord  proprietary.      The  last  vestige  of 
power  having  gone,  Philip  Carteret,  leaving  John  Berry  as  his  dep 
uty,  betook  himsejf  to  England,  where  the  proprietaries,  backed  by 
the  Duke  of  York,  sustained  their  officers,  and  sent  out  letters  ex 
tending  the  executive  power,  declaring  the  old  grants  void,  and  defer 
ring  for  a  short  time  the  payment  of  quit-rents.     This  was  ef 
fective,  and  James  Carteret  sailed  for  Virginia ;  but  the  trouble 
proved  sufficient  to  frighten  Lord  Berkeley,  and  make  him  part  with 
all  his  right  and  title  in  the  province.     Meantime,  the  efforts  of  the 
proprietaries  to  settle  the  difficulties  of  their  province  were  cut  short 
by  the  Dutch  reconquest  of  New  York.     The  inhabitants  of  New  Jer 
sey  submitted  quietly  to  the  Dutch,  in  the  autumn  of  1673,  on  receiv 
ing  sufficient  promises  of  protection  and  liberty,  and  went  back  as  qui 
etly  under  the  English  rule  the  following  year,  when  peace  was  made. 
This  passing  change  of  masters  had  the  effect  of  leaving  in  doubt  the 
validity  of  the  old  grant  to  the  Duke  of  York,  and  this  grant  was, 
therefore,  made  again,  and  the  Duke  commissioned  Andros  as  Gov 
ernor  of  the  whole  territory.     Charles,  however,  recognized  Carteret's 
government,  and  the  Duke  was  obliged,  in  turn,  to  renew  his  former 
conveyance,  which  was  now  made  separately  to  Carteret,  and  included 
East  New  Jersey,  nothing  being  said  about  the  portion  alienated  by 
Berkeley.     Philip  Carteret  again  came  out  as  Governor,  and 
was  well  received,  and  everything  went  quietly  in  the  Assem 
bly  which  he  called  in  the  following  year. 

Lord  Berkeley,  in  the  mean  time,  had  sold  his  share  to  John  Fen- 
wick,  in  trust  for  Edward  Bylimge,  both  Quakers.  A  controversy 
arose,  and  one-tenth  was  awarded  by  Pcnn,  as  arbitrator,  to  Fen  wick, 
and  nine-tenths  to  Byllinge.  Soon  after  Byllinge  failed  m  ousmess,  and 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  265 

his  nine-tenths  were  assigned  to  trustees,  with  Penn  at  their  head,  for 
the  benefit  of  his  creditors;  while  Fenwick  also  mortgaged  his  share, 
and,  having  sold  some  lands,  came  out  with  a  number  of  emigrants, 
and  settled  at  Salem,  near  the  Delaware.     This  had  hardly  been  done 
when  Andros,  despite  the  Duke's  original  grant,  and  his  own  recogni 
tion  of  the  concessions,  sent  down  officers,  stopped  the  trade 
of  the  Quakers,  and  finally  arrested  Fenwick  and  sent  him  to 
New  York,  where  he  was  soon  released ;  but  afterward  returned,  and 
was  again  released  on  parole.     In  the  mean  time  the  trustees  of  Byl- 
linge  and  the  mortgagees  of  Fenwick  had  combined,  and  effected  an 
agreement  with  Carteret,  by  which  the  province  was  divided  into  East 
and  West  New  Jersey.     The  Quakers  then  framed  a  government  of 
extreme  liberality,  providing  for  toleration  in  religion,  for  a  represent 
ative  Assembly,  and  for  an  executive  composed  of  commissioners  to 
be  chosen  by  the  freeholders.     Commissioners  were  at  once 
appointed,  and  sailed  with  a  large  number  of  settlers.     They 
were  detained  at  New  York  by  Andros,  who  denied  their  authority, 
and  who  only  allowed  them  to  proceed  on  taking  a  warrant  from  him. 
This  done,  they  entered  upon  their  work,  allotted  lands,  and  founded 
towns;  but  in  the  midst  of  their  labors  Fenwick  appeared,  released 
from  New  York,  and  set  up  a  government  of  his  own  at  Salem.     The 
commissioners  forbore  to  meddle  with  Fenwick,  but  Andros  was  not 
so  gentle;  and,  on  the  former's  refusal  to  pay  customs  to  the 
Duke's  officers,  arrested  him  again,  and  took  him  once  more 
to  New  York.     Andros  then  went  further,  and  undertook  to  enforce 
the  customs  upon  the  other  settlements,  which  were  growing  rapidly ; 
but  this  produced  complaints,  and  the  proprietors  had  the  whole  ques 
tion  referred  to  Sir  William  Jones  as  arbitrator.    After  elaborate  argu 
ments,  Sir  William  Jones  decided  that  the  Duke  had  no  right  to  cus 
toms;  and  a  new  grant  was  then  made  by  the  Duke  to  the 
proprietors,  which,  however,  complicated  matters  still  further, 
by  reserving  the  powers  of  government  to  Edward  Byllinge. 

Meanwhile  the  same  policy  had  been  attempted  by  the  Duke's  offi 
cers  against  East  New  Jersey,  where  everything  was  moving  peaceably, 
and  where  Carteret,  anxious  to  encourage  commerce,  had  opened  Eliz 
abeth  as  a  free  port,  which  was  strenuously  resisted  by  Andros,  who 
demanded  duties.  Carteret  refused,  and  Andros,  with  this  quarrel 
rapidly  ripening,  went  to  England,  where  he  received  instructions  to 
exact  the  duties  for  three  years  more.  On  his  return  he  paid  a 
visit  to  Carteret,  who,  backed  by  the  Assembly,  declined  to  submit; 


266  HISTORY  OF  THE 

and  soon  after  an  armed  force  was  sent  out  by  Andros,  and  Carteret 
was  surprised,  arrested,  and  taken  to  New  York.  There  Carteret 
was  tried,  and,  although  acquitted  by  the  jury,  was  still  detained  as  a 
prisoner,  while  Andros  tried  to  seize  the  New  Jersey  government,  and 
was  baffled  by  the  firm  resistance  of  the  Assembly.  Instructions  came 
from  the  widow  of  Sir  George  Carteret,  who  died  at  this  juncture,  to 
refuse  submission  to  the  Governor  of  New  York ;  and  the  Duke  soon 
after  executed  a  release  to  the  heirs  of  Carteret,  and  recalled  Andros. 
The  deputy,  Brockholst,  made  one  more  attempt  to  carry  out  the  high 
handed  policy  of  his  superior  and  predecessor,  but  was  success 
fully  opposed  by  Carteret,  who  had  been  reinstated,  and  the 
protracted  contest  came  to  an  end. 

Not  long  after  the  Carteret  heirs  sold  out  their  property  to  Wil 
liam  Penn  and  others,  who  obtained  still  another  release  from 
the  slippery  Duke,  and  formed  an  association  of  twenty-four 
proprietors  for  the  government  of  East  New  Jersey.    Robert  Barclay, 
one  of  the  principal  leaders  of  the  Quakers,  was  appointed  Governor, 
and  Thomas  Rudyard  was  sent  out  as  his  deputy.     Much  practical 
legislation  was  enacted  by  the  new  Governor  and  the  Assembly ; 
counties  were  laid  out,  courts  erected,  and  the  penal  code  revised. 
Soon  after,  the  government  was  reorganized,  Barclay  made  Govern 
or  for  life,  and  Gawen  Lawrie,  one  of  the  founders  of  West  New  Jer 
sey,  appointed  deputy.     Lawrie  came  out  the  year  after  his  appoint 
ment  with  some  new  concessions,  which  provided  for  the  choice 
of  the  Governor  by  the  proprietors,  for  a  representative  Assem 
bly,  religious  toleration,  and  other  less  important  matters,  and  which 
aroused  considerable  opposition  in  the  province  owing  to  the  favor 
itism  shown  the  Quakers,  who  were  but  a  small  minority  of  the  in 
habitants.     Lawrie  also  became  involved  in  a  contest  with  Governor 
Dongan,  who  renewed  the  efforts  of  Andros,  and  attempted,  with  the 
aid  of  the  royal  collector,  to  force  all  ships  to  enter  at  New  York ; 
and  when  the  proprietors  remonstrated,  Dongan's  defence  made  it 
evident  that  he   aimed  at  the  annexation  of  the  province.     This 
amiable   policy   reached   success   by   the   accession   of  James,  who, 
once  on  the  throne,  threw  aside  the  underhand  frauds  by  which 
he  had  tried  to  control  the  Jerseys,  and  by  the  issue  of  a  writ  of 
quo  warranto  forced  the  proprietors  of  East  New  Jersey  to  surren 
der  their  province,  on  condition  that  they  should  retain  the 
ownership  of  the  soil.    The  fate  of  West  New  Jersey  was  sim 
ilar.     This  province  had  increased  rapidly  in  population  and  prosper 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  267 

ity,  while  its  proprietors  wrangled  and  quarrelled,  and  wound  them 
selves  up  in  every  form  of  legal  and  business  complication.  When, 
however,  they  saw  the  quo  warranto  suspended  over  East  New  Jersey, 
they  followed  the  example  of  their  sister  province  and  surrendered  to 
the  King,  on  the  same  condition  of  retaining  the  ownership  of  the 
soil. 

Andros,  now  Governor-general  of  New  England  and  New  York,  took 
charge  of  the  government  and  administered  it  in  irresponsi 
ble  fashion,  but  mainly  through  the  old  officers ;  and  when  the 
Revolution  came,  there  was  too  little  harmony  or  sympathy  between 
people  and  proprietaries,  and  too  little  affection  for  the  old  governments 
to  lead  to  any  active  measures.    Governors  were  appointed,  and  resist 
ed  by  the  people ;  and,  finally,  Andrew  Hamilton,  who  had  been  dep 
uty  at  the  time  of  the  surrender,  came  out  as  Governor,  and 
succeeded  in   carrying  on   an  administration.      He  was  also 
made  Governor  of  West  New  Jersey,  which  had  passed  through  vari 
ous  hands  into  the  possession  of  a  society.    Thus  the  two  divisions  of 
New  Jersey  came  together  gradually,  and  the  arrangement  was 
continued  under  Hamilton's  successor,  Jeremiah  Basse.    Under 
the  new  Governor  the  old  trouble  with  New  York  once  more  broke 
out,  and  the  question  of  customs  again  came  before  eminent  lawyers, 
and  was  again  decided  in  favor  of  the  proprietors.     At  last  the  seiz 
ure  of  a  vessel  brought  the  matter  to  the  courts,  and  East  Jersey  won 
again.     In  the  mean  time  Basse  had  lost  the  confidence  of  both  peo 
ple  and  proprietors,  and  was  recalled.    The  proprietaries  wished 
to  reappoint  Hamilton,  and  he  came  out  as  Governor  of  WTest 
Jersey,  but  for  East  Jersey  the  royal  approbation  could  not  be  ob 
tained.     The  people  of  East  Jersey  petitioned  the  Crown  against  the 
proprietors,  whose  title  was  also  contested  by  the  King,  and  the  Coun 
cil  of  proprietors,  now  become  an  unwieldy  body,  was  itself  divided. 
Some  of  them  urged  an  immediate  surrender,  others  sought  to  make 
terms,  and,  after  much  bickering  and  bargaining,  the  surrender  was 
finally  made.     West  Jersey  followed  in  the  same  course,  although 
there  was  less  faction  among  the  people,  and  joined  in  the  surrender 
to  Queen  Anne,  soon  after  the  death  of  King  William.     The 
rights  of  the  proprietors  in  the  land  were  sufficiently  protected, 
and  a  form  of  government  satisfactory  to  all  was  promised. 

This  new  constitution  was  embodied  in  the  instructions  of  Lord 
Cornbury,  who  was  appointed  Governor  of  both  New  York  and  the 
Jerseys,  now  consolidated  into  one  province.  The  form  of  govern- 


268  HISTORY  OF  THE 

ment  thus  established  provided  for  a  Governor  and  Council  appointed 
by  the  Crown,  and  was  on  the  common  model  of  the  royal  provincial 
governments  of  the  eighteenth  century.  It  put  an  end  to  the  wretched 
jarring  and  confused  political  arrangements  from  which  New  Jersey 
had  suffered  for  nearly  half  a  century  at  the  hands  of  the  proprietors, 
and  introduced  permanence  and  order.  The  proprietors,  secure  in 
their  rights  of  property,  were  simply  deprived  of  government  which 
they  could  not  carry  on,  while  the  people  lost  much  of  the  entire  lib 
erty  which  they  had  practically  enjoyed  under  the  feeble  rule  of  the 
proprietors.  There  were  the  seeds  for  many  future  controversies  in 
such  a  condition  of  affairs,  and  before  long  they  produced  a  plentiful 
harvest. 

Lord  Cornbury  was  well  received  on  his  arrival,  and  addressed  the 
Assembly  in  gracious  terms,  so   that   formal  business  was   rapidly 
transacted ;    but  when  the  settlement  of  proprietary  rights  and  the 
raising  supplies   were   reached,  there  was  a  pause,  and  the  Assem 
bly   was  dissolved.     At  the  next  session  matters  were  even 
worse.     The  Assembly,  after  much  hesitation,  granted  a  sum 
of  money  which  the  Governor  thought  lamentably  insufficient,  and 
would  do  nothing  for  a  military  force.     The  result  was  a  dissolution, 
and  a  struggle  at  the  elections,  in  which  the  government  was  beaten. 
Cornbury,  who  was  one  of  the  most  worthless  of  the  many  bad  co- 
Jonial  governors,  then  unseated  three  members,  and,  having  packed 
the  House,  got  through  the  supply  and  militia  bills  which  he  desired, 
and  made  himself  master  of  the  province.     For  two  years  he  retained 
this  ill-gotten  power,  troubled  only  by  contests  with  some  of  the  pro 
prietors  about  lands ;  but  the  spirit  of  discontent  spread  rapidly,  and 
at  the  next  Assembly  he  found  himself  facing  a  determined 
opposition,  ably  led  by   Samuel  Jenings  and  Lewis  Morris. 
The  Assembly  drew  up  a  memorial  to  the  Queen  and  a  remonstrance 
to  the  Governor,  setting  forth  their  grievances  in  the  failure  of  jus 
tice,  the  establishment  of  fees,  the  prohibition  of  land  grants  by  the 
proprietors,  and  finally  the  invasion  of  their  liberties  by  the  removal 
of  the  three  members.     Then  ensued  the  usual  conflict — replies  from 
the  Governor,  refusal  of  supplies,  repeated  dissolutions,  and  at 
last  the  removal  of  Cornbury,  against  whom  complaints  went 
up  from  every  part  of  the  region  unfortunate  enough  to  be  governed 
by  him. 

His  successor,  Lovelace,  was  welcomed  in  the  province,  but  did 
not  live  long  enough  to  deal  with  the  restrictions  which  the  As* 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  269 

sembly  put  on  the  money  bill ;  and  his  death  left  the  government 
in  the  hands  of  Ingoldsby,  the  Lieutenant-governor,  and  a  tool  of 
Cornbury,  against  whom  the  Assembly  had  already  addressed 
the  Queen.  The  Assembly,  however,  cheerfully  voted  three 
thousand  pounds  in  aid  of  the  war  against  Canada,  enlisted  men,  and 
entered  upon  the  favorite  colonial  system  of  paper-money  by  issuing 
bills  of  credit  for  this  purpose.  They  then  turned  their  attention 
to  domestic  affairs,  and  had  little  to  do  with  Ingoldsby,  who  succeed 
ed  in  forming  a  party  in  the  Council  hostile  to  the  representatives 
of  the  people;  but  his  universal  unpopularity  and  the  complaints 
against  his  government  soon  led  to  his  removal,  and  he 
was  succeeded  by  General  Hunter,  who  made  a  favorable  im 
pression,  and  gave  promise  of  a  good  administration.  The  quarrel 
went  on  between  the  Assembly  and  the  Ingoldsby  party  in  the  Coun 
cil  in  regard  to  the  attacks  of  the  latter,  the  disabilities  of  Quakers 
refusing  to  take  an  oath,  and  the  qualification  of  jurors.  The  pop 
ular  grievances  were  laid  before  Hunter,  who,  after  an  impartial 
consideration,  removed  the  obnoxious  members  of  the  Council  from 
office,  which  so  restored  the  confidence  of  the  Assembly  that  at 
their  next  session  they  authorized  the  raising  of  volunteers,  and 
gave  cheerfully  five  thousand  pounds  for  the  war  in  bills  of  credit. 
The  next  Assembly,  which  did  not  meet  until  two  years  later,  con 
tinued  to  act  in  harmony  with  the  Governor,  voted  supplies, 
removed  the  disabilities  of  the  Quakers,  settled  the  qualifica 
tions  of  jurors,  and  regulated  slavery.  An  interval  of  three  years 
elapsed  before  another  Assembly  was  summoned,  and  then  came 
the  first  contest  with  Hunter,  who  had  been  instructed  to  remove 
the  capital  from  Burlington  to  Amboy.  This  produced  a  factious 
opposition,  but  Hunter's  instructions  were  so  plain  that  submission 
was  alone  possible.  The  hostile  faction  undertook  to  break  up  the 
Assembly,  but  the  majority  stood  by  the  Governor,  and  the  members 
who  absented  themselves  were  expelled,  and  not  allowed  to  sit  again  in 
the  House.  After  this  conclusion  the  attention  of  the  Assembly  was 
turned  to  the  finances  of  the  province,  which  were  much  involved. 
They  tried  to  meet  their  deficiencies  by  more  bills  of  credit,  and  did 
their  best  to  furnish  proper  salaries  and  supplies  to  the  govern 
ment  ;  but  the  close  of  Hunter's  administration  left  them  still 
in  trouble,  and  when  his  successor,  William  Burnet,  who  arrived  in 
the  following  year,  met  the  Assembly,  matters  had  not  much  improved, 
and  the  province  was  still  encumbered  with  debt.  Burnet  entered  at 


270  'HISTORY  OF  THE 

once  upon  the  domineering,  meddling  policy  which  he  adhered  to 
with  such  pertinacity  during  his  whole  career  in  America,  and  in  all 
his  governments.  He  not  only  demanded  the  settlement  of  a  lasting 
revenue  and  an  increase  of  salary  from  the  impoverished  province, 
but  he  rebuked  the  Assembly  for  the  length  of  its  sessions,  question 
ed  the  validity  of  laws  regulating  the  qualifications  of  members,  and 
interfered  in  every  way  with  the  rights  and  privileges  of  the  represen 
tatives.  This  awakened  a  stubborn  resistance  and  refusal  of  supplies, 
and  sudden  dissolutions  followed  each  other  in  the  usual  fashion  for 
two  years/  Then  the  Governor  abated  somewhat  his  preten 
sions,  the  Assembly  voted  salaries  smaller  than  before,  made 
appropriations  for  five  years,  passed  laws  against  the  Papists,  and 
dealt  with  the  debt  by  authorizing  the  emission  of  forty  thousand 
pounds  in  bills  of  credit,  which  were  legal  tender  and  bore  interest, 
and  by  the  establishment  of  a  loan-office.  There  were  contests  on 
the  judiciary  and  other  questions ;  but  the  measures  which  were  pass 
ed  enabled  the  government  to  go  on  smoothly  enough  until  the  year 
1727,  when  the  people  began  to  be  restive  on  account  of  the- protract 
ed  existence  of  the  Assembly  and  the  long  intervals  between  the  ses 
sions.  A  new  Assembly  was  therefore  convened,  but  nothing  was  done, 
and  soon  after  Burnet  was  transferred  to  Massachusetts. 

Burnet's  successor,  John  Montgomerie,  ruled  quietly  and  ac 
ceptably.     A  strong  effort  was  made  for  a  separation  from 
New  York,  but  the  movement  effected  nothing.     On  the  death  of 
Montgomerie,  Lewis  Morris,  as  President  of  the  Council,  was 
at  the  head  of  the  government  until  the  arrival  of  William 
Cosby,  in  the  following  year,  with  a  commission  as  Governor  of  New 
York  and  New  Jersey.     The  Assembly  passed  a  bill  providing  for  tri 
ennial  elections,  and  calling  an  Assembly  at  least  once  in  three  years 
at  Amboy  and  Burlington  alternately,  which  received  the  assent  of 
the  Governor,  but  was  disallowed  by  the  King,  and,  together  with  the 
similar  fate  of  bills  regulating  legal  matters,  caused  much  discontent. 
Cosby  was  not  over-popular,  and  the  Assembly  complained  of  his  se 
lections  for  the  Council ;  but,  on  the  whole,  his  administration 
1738^   was  Peaceflll;  an<^  at  tne  time  °f  ms  death,  the  petition  for  a 
separation  from  New  York  being  finally  granted,  Lewis  Morris 
was  appointed  Governor  of  New  Jersey. 

This  excellent  and  needed  change,  which  brought  a  man  identified 
with  New  Jersey  to  the  head  of  affairs,  produced  some  alterations  in 
the  form  of  government.  The  Council  was  made  a  separate  branch 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  271 

of  the  legislature,  and  the  Governor  no  longer  presided  at  their  meet 
ings.  After  an  exchange  of  courtesies  and  congratulations,  the  As 
sembly  got  to  work,  and  found  that  the  former  leader  of  the  popu 
lar  party  was  no  more  manageable  than  his  predecessors.  The  old 
quarrel  over  fixing  elections  and  shortening  lawsuits  was  renewed,  and 
the  supply  bill  and  salaries,  passed  after  much  delay,  were  so  highly 
unsatisfactory  that  the  Governor  dissolved  the  Assembly  in  disgust. 
The  next  Assembly,  despite  a  sharp  lecture  from  the  Governor,  was  no 
better;  the  old  subjects  of  contention  were  brought  forward, 
and  matters  were  still  further  complicated  by  the  Spanish  war. 
Morris  refused  to  adjourn  the  House  until  they  had  given  aid  to  the 
war,  and  this  led  to  the  passage  of  a  bill  which  opened  up  the  ques 
tion  of  the  disposal  of  the  revenue,  and  to  which  the  Assembly  ad 
hered,  despite  the  opposition  of  the  Governor.  The  controversy  thus 
begun  rapidly  developed.  Every  possible  subject  of  dispute  was  drawn 
in,  including  fees,  salaries,  and  meetings  of  the  Assembly ;  and  the 
House  refused  to  pass  supply  bills  until  their  other  measures  received 
the  Governor's  assent.  They  also  came  to  an  open  breach  with  the 
Council,  accusing  them  of  an  improper  union  of  offices ;  there  was  a 
further  contest  about  a  militia  bill,  there  was  no  money,  government 
was  at  a  standstill,  and  at  this  juncture  Morris,  from  whose  adminis 
tration  so  much  had  been  expected,  died,  and  left  the  govern 
ment  in  the  hands  of  John  Hamilton,  the  senior  member  of 
the  Council. 

The  death  of  Morris  softened  the  bitterness  of  parties,  and  the  As 
sembly  passed  bills  for  raising  men,  and  issued  ten  thousand  pounds 
for  the  war,  in  accordance  with  the  royal  instructions  sent  to 
Hamilton.     Shortly  after  Hamilton  died,  the  government  de 
volved  on  John  Reading,  another  councillor,  and  then  passed  to  Jon 
athan  Belcher,  who  came  out  as  Governor.     The  peace  of  Aix-la-Cha- 
pelle  relieved  the  province  from  the  burdens  of  war ;  and  Bel 
cher,  a  shrewd,  wary  man  of  long  political  experience,  put  an 
end  to  the  quarrels  of  his  predecessors,  humored  the  Assembly  as  far 
as  possible,  assented  to  several  bills  which  Morris  had  stoutly  resisted, 
and  never  opposed  the  popular  wishes,  except  when  his  instructions 
left  him  no   choice,  and  then  the  Assembly  were   obliged  to  yield. 
This  insured  a  quiet,  peaceful,  and  prosperous  administration,  of  which 
the  province  stood  much  in  need.    The  only  break  was  caused  by  riots 
arising  from  the  knotty  questions  of  land  titles,  and  directed  against 
the  courts  and  the  old  proprietors.    The  Assembly,  sympathizing  with 


272  HISTORY  OF  THE 

the  rioters,  prevented  the  employment  of  force,  and  the  insurrection 
finally  subsided. 

The  French  war  affected  New  Jersey  but  little,  owing  to  her  pro 
tected  situation  —  shut  in  by  the  great  colonies  of  New  Yor"k  and 
Pennsylvania.     While  professing  their  readiness  to  resist  French  en 
croachment,  New  Jersey,  having  no  interest  in  the  Indians  or  the  In 
dian  trade,  declined  to  meet  the  commissioners  of  the  other  colonies 
at  Albany  in  1754,  and  promptly  refused  to  ratify  Franklin's  constitu 
tion,  which  was  proposed  by  that  meeting  to  all  the  American  prov 
inces.    During  the  war  New  Jersey  did  little.    The  Assembly  generally 
complied  with  the  requisitions  made  upon  them,  but  they  would  refuse 
or  modify  at  their  own  discretion,  with  the  exercise  of  which  neither 
Belcher  nor  his  successors  seem  to  have  interfered.     Belcher's 
judicious  rule  was  closed  by  his  death,  and  the  government  de 
volved  again  upon  Reading.    Then  followed  several  Governors  for  very 
short  terms :  Francis  Bernard,  who  was  active  in  Indian  affairs ;  Thom 
as  Boone,  soon  transferred  to  South  Carolina ;  Josiah  Hardy ; 
and,  finally,  William  Franklin,  who  was  appointed  through  the 
influence  of  Lord  Bute,  and  held  office  until  driven  out  by  revolution. 
The  concord  and  good  feeling  produced  by  the  great  victories  of 
the  French  war,  and  by  its  successful  close,  were  soon  disturbed  by  the 
new  policy  of  taxation.     New  Jersey  had  been  as  ready  as  any  colony, 
during  the  war,  to  oppose  anything  like  taxation  by  England,  so  that 
the  Stamp  Act  aroused  general  discontent ;  and,  when  it  came  to  the 
point,  the  stamp-collector  resigned,  without  an  attempt  to  perform 
his  duties.     The  circular   of  Massachusetts  found  the  Assembly  on 
the  eve  of  adjournment ;  and,  owing  to  this  and  to  the  efforts  of 
Franklin,  an  evasive  reply  was  returned.     This  produced  general  dis 
satisfaction  ;  so  marked,  indeed,  that  the  Speaker  called  a  convention 
of  the  members,  denounced  violently  by  Franklin,  and  delegates  were 
appointed,  who  met  with  those  from  the  other  provinces  at 
New  York,  and  thus  placed  New  Jersey  among  the  united  col 
onies,  and  bound  up  her  interests  with  theirs. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  273 


CHAPTER  XV. 

NEW  JERSEY  IN  1765. 

THE  province  of  New  Jersey,  stretching  along  the  Atlantic,  with 
low,  sandy  shore,  and  a  wide  extent  of  low,  flat  country,  rising  gradu 
ally  toward  the  west  and  south,  and  intersected  with  noble  rivers,  oc 
cupied  a  position  wholly  different  from  any  other  American  colony. 
New  Jersey  alone  never  had  a  border  on  the  wilderness.  She  was 
shut  in  by  the  great  provinces  of  New  York  and  Pennsylvania,  and, 
from  the  time  the  settlements  were  fairly  founded,  never  knew  the 
dangers  which  haunted  the  frontier  settlers  of  the  other  colonies,  ex 
cept  in  the  case  of  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island,  down  even  to  the 
period  of  the  Revolution. 

Except  for  internal  dissensions,  and  the  troubles  with  the  govern 
ment  of  New  York,  there  was  nothing  from  the  outset  to  check  the 
quiet  and  prosperous  growth  of  the  province.  The  population  num 
bered  seventy-five  thousand  at  the  period  of  the  French  war,  and  about 
one  hundred  thousand  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution.  The  number  of 
negroes  was,  as  in  Pennsylvania,  comparatively  small.1  There  was  lit 
tle  diversity  of  race  among  the  New  Jersey  people.  The  trifling  Swed 
ish  and  Dutch  elements  had  been  completely  absorbed,  and  there  were 
some  German  settlements;  but  with  these  exceptions  the  population 
was  of  pure  English  stock.  West  New  Jersey  was  settled  by  Quakers 
chiefly,  of  whom  a  few  had  gone  also  to  East  New  Jersey,  which  was 
occupied  principally  by  New  England  men  and  by  some  Scotch  Pres 
byterians.  These  were  good  materials,  and  the  colony  benefited  from 
the  purity,  vigor,  and  homogeneousness  of  her  population.* 

"  They  are  a  very  rustical  people,"  said  Governor  Belcher,  "  and  de 
ficient  in  learning."  A  "  rustical  people  "  they  certainly  were,  for  near- 

1  Sussex  Centenary,  Edsall's  Address ;  Burnaby,  p.  101 ;  Board  of  Trade  Esti 
mates,  Bancroft,  iv.,  127, 129  ;  Hildreth,  ii.,  419. 

2  Murray,  Notes  on  Elizabeth ;  Kalm,  i.,  228 ;  ii.,  123  ;  Sussex  Centenary,  Edsall's 
Address ;  Barber's  Hist.  Coll.  of  New  Jersey. 

18 


274  HISTORY  OF  THE 

ly  the  whole  community  was  absorbed  in  farming.  Wheat  and  pro 
visions  were  the  staples,  and  the  chief  articles  of  commerce,  and  there 
was  also  some  bar-iron  exported,  a  small  traffic  in  fur,  tar,  and  tim 
ber,  and  large  herds  of  cattle  ;  but  the  trade  of  New  Jersey  with  Eng 
land  and  Europe  went  out  through  New  York  and  Philadelphia,  and 
only  a  small  coasting  and  river  traffic  was  kept  up  in  the  local  ports.1 
The  towns  were  small,  comely  villages.  Some,  like  Trenton,  were  built 
on  the  line  of  travel  between  New  York  and  Philadelphia,  which  gave 
them  support.  A  long  street,  down  which  Washington  rode  one  fa 
mous  December  night  to  turn  the  wavering  scale  of  Revolution,  ran 
through  the  centre  of  the  town,  and  was  flanked  by  comfortable  houses 
close  to  the  highway,  with  large  gardens  stretching  out  behind  them. 
Other  villages  were  simply  the  centres  of  the  farming  district  for 
which  they  furnished  supplies ;  while  others,  again,  were  merely 
straggling  collections  of  two  or  three  farms,  of  which  the  pasture- 
land  was  held  in  common.  So  insignificant  were  the  towns,  that  in 
early  times  legislation  was  necessary  to  compel  them  to  have  "  ordi 
naries  "  for  passing  strangers.  Some  of  the  houses  in  the  New  Jersey 
villages  were  of  wood,  but  brick  was  the  most  usual  material.  They 
were  lightly  but  well  built,  with  high  stoops,  where  their  occupants 
gathered  in  the  summer  twilight  to  gossip  with  their  neighbors.2 
The  great  majority  of  the  inhabitants  were  farmers,  and  lived  in 
brick  or  wooden  farm-houses,  scattered  over  the  whole  province,  and 
deriving  a  plentiful  subsistence  from  their  land.  One  writer,  about 
the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  who  probably  had  but  slight  ac 
quaintance  with  the  back  districts  of  Pennsylvania  or  with  any  of  the 
southern  States,  says,  "  Farms  in  New  Jersey,  in  thick  woods,  resem 
ble  the  face  of  the  sky  after  a  tempest  when  the  clouds  are  breaking 
away."  Yet  New  Jersey  was  the  most  thickly  settled  of  any  of  the 
colonies,  except,  perhaps,  the  coast  region  of  New  England.  The  in 
tervals  of  forest  between  the  clearings  were  not  long ;  one  farm  often 
ran  into  another,  and  little  hamlets  were  passed  frequently  by  the  trav 
eller.  The  farms  were  given  up  to  the  plainest  kinds  of  country  prod 

1  Huguenot  Family  in  Virginia,  p.  301 ;  Smyth,  ii.,  396,  400 ;  Burnaby,  p.  101  ; 
Gabriel  Thomas,  Hist,  of  West  New  Jersey ;  Learning  and  Spicer,  Laws  of  New 
Jersey,  1676. 

8  Huguenot  Family  in  Virginia,  pp.  300,  301 ;  Smith,  ii.,  397  ;  Abbe"  Robin,  p.  82 ; 
C.  Blanchard's  Journal,  p.  134  ;  Kalm,  i.,  220,  228  ;  Burnaby,  p.  96  ;  Wansey,  p.  195 ; 
Gabriel  Thomas,  History  of  West  New  Jersey ;  Barber's  Hist.  Coll.  of  New  Jersey, 
Early  Legislation  ;  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  646. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  275 

uce.  There  was  little  or  no  fencing,  and  no  walls,  except  to  protect 
the  apple,  peach,  and  cherry  trees,  the  only  fruits  grown.  The  agri 
culture  was  low,  as  in  most  of  the  other  colonies,  and  few  improve 
ments  were  attempted.1  The  contemporary  letter-writer,  just  quoted, 
says,  "  It  is  as  well  cultivated  as  any  of  the  colonies,  yet  is  much  in  dis 
habille,  or  at  least  seems  so  to  one  that  has  not  seen  late  settled  places." 
There  was  no  foreign  trade,  and  the  manufactures  were  trifling." 

Society  and  social  life,  under  such  conditions,  were  both  simple. 
There  was  a  mild  recognition  of  social  distinctions,  and  an  acknowl 
edged  aristocracy  of  gentlemen  farmers  without  great  political  influ 
ence.  The  underlying  and  strongest  principles  were  those  of  democ 
racy,  brought  in  by  the  New  England  immigrants,  and  which  found 
in  New  Jersey  a  favorable  soil.  All  persons  above  slaves  and  indent 
ed  servants  were,  with  the  exception  of  the  few  small  traders  and 
shopkeepers  in  the  towns,  and  of  those  who  added  a  profession  to 
agriculture,  farmers  of  one  sort  or  another,  and  the  differences  existing 
among  them  were  only  of  degree,  not  of  kind,  while  the  various  grades 
melted  so  imperceptibly  into  each  other  that  it  was  not  easy  to  mark 
the  various  stages  in  the  descent  from  the  large  gentleman-farmer  to 
the  small  freeholder.  One  reason  for  this  slackness  in  class  distinctions 
and  for  the  shadowy  cast  of  the  aristocratic  system  was  the  very  small 
number  of  slaves  and  the  comparative  scarcity  of  indented  servants. 
The  servile  classes  in  New  Jersey  seem  to  have  been  socially  as  well  as 
numerically  insignificant.  They  were  usually  employed  in  domestic  ser 
vice,  and  the  laws  in  regard  to  them  were  severe,  like  the  southern  codes 
upon  which  they  were  modelled.  The  penalties  for  receiving  or  trading 
with  runaways  were  heavy,  and  the  slaves  and  servants  were*  severely 
whipped  for  these  offences.  They  were  forbidden  to  carry  arms,  and 
were  burnt  at  the  stake  for  murder,  all  their  fellow-servants  being  sum 
moned  to  witness  the  horrid  spectacle.  The  general  treatment  of  the 
slaves  was  extremely  mild,  and  the  spirit  of  the  colony  was,  as  a  rule, 
so  far  hostile  to  slavery  that  it  was  stoutly  and  successfully  resisted  by 
the  Quakers  in  the  southern  counties,  and  laws  were  passed  by  the  As 
sembly  in  1762  and  1766  to  check  the  importation  by  means  of  du 
ties.  But  despite  all  this,  and  the  small  numbers  of  the  negroes,  there 
was  a  constant  fear  of  insurrection ;  and  this  uneasiness  was  justified 
by  occasional  risings  which  were  either  carried  out  or  attempted,  and 

1  Smyth,  ii.,  397 ;  C.  Blanchard's  Journal,  p.  133  ;  Kalm,  i.,  222  ;  ii.,  25, 195  ;  Let 
ter  from  New  Jersey,  1745-1756.  2  Burnaby,  p.  101. 


276  BISTORT  OF  THE 

which  resulted  in  the  execution  of  several  negroes.  At  the  time  of 
the  excitement  caused  by  the  negro-plot  in  New  York,  in  the  year 
1741,  the  panic  spread  to  New  Jersey,  and  two  or  three  wretched 
blacks  were  burnt  at  the  stake.1  The  indented  servants  were  not 
more  numerous  than  the  slaves,  and  their  condition  did  not  differ 
much  from  that  of  the  same  class  in  other  colonies.  They  were,  too, 
of  a  somewhat  better  sort,  as  the  jail-birds  went  generally  to  the  south 
ern  provinces,  where  they  were  strictly  indented  and  harshly  used.3 

These  servile  classes  furnished,  probably,  as  elsewhere,  the  pau 
pers  and  criminals ;  but  there  appear  to  have  been  few  of  either  in 
New  Jersey.  In  the  towns  settled  by  New  Englanders  paupers  were 
sold  at  auction,  and  farmed  out  on  the  simple  Puritan  plan ;  but  there 
was  no  other  means  taken  of  dealing  with  them,  and  their  numbers 
were  very  trifling.  In  regard  to  the  much  more  serious  evil,  it  may 
be  said  that,  practically,  there  was  no  crime  in  New  Jersey.  Houses 
were  left  unfastened  at  night ;  thefts  and  robberies  were  uncommon ; 
pick-pockets  were  unknown ;  and  the  roads  were  uninfested  and  se 
cure.  The  failing  of  the  population  seems  to  have  been  in  illicit 
sexual  connections,  which  were  severely  punished,  after  the  New  Eng 
land  fashion,  by  fines  and  whipping.  Adultery  was  expiated  by  heavy 
fines  and  many  lashes ;  and  the  whole  code,  in  its  severity  against 
drinking,  swearing,  challenges,  and  wearing  swords,  shows  the  New 
England  origin  of  the  laws.  Punishments  were  simple  and  severe. 
A  woman  received  twenty  lashes,  in  the  year  1732,  for  larceny;  and 
small  offences  were  ordinarily  dealt  with  by  the  whipping-post,  stocks, 
and  pillory.  For  capital  crimes,  of  which  there  were  thirteen  in  East, 
and  none  under  the  early  and  mild  Quakers  in  West  New  Jersey,  white 
men  were  hung,  and  negroes  were  sometimes  sent  to  the  gallows  and 
sometimes  to  the  stake.  The  methods  of  meeting  the  difficulties  of 
pauperism  and  crime  were  utterly  rude  and  unimproved,  and  in  the 
fashion  of  the  period.  But,  with  a  pure  English  people  and  plenty 
of  good  farming  land,  neither  of  these  social  evils  was  either  press 
ing  or  important.8 

1  Hist,  of  Salem,  in  West  New  Jersey ;  Hatfield,  Hist,  of  Elizabeth ;  Barber's  Hist. 
Coll. ;  Learning  and  Spicer,  Laws  of  New  Jersey,  1682, 1686, 1693 ;  Rochefoucauld, 
i.,  544. 

*  Learning  and  Spicer,  Laws,  1682, 1686  ;  Letter  from  New  Jersey,  1745-1756. 

3  Hist,  of  Salem,  in  West  New  Jersey;  Learning  and  Spicer,  Laws,  1675,  1682, 
1686,  1698;  Letter  from  New  Jersey;  Hist.  Coll.,  iii.,  Field,  Prov.  Courts;  vi., 
Records  of  Newark. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  277 

Above  the  servile  classes  came  the  various  grades  of  farmers.  The 
highest  were  gentlemen  farmers,  who  lived  on  their  own  estates,  and 
worked  them  with  great  profit.  Some  of  their  country  seats  were 
very  handsome,  bordering  on  the  rivers,  and  running  far  back  into  the 
country,  like  the  New  York  manors ;  and  the  owners  not  infrequently 
displayed  in  their  houses  a  good  deal  of  elegance.  We  hear  of  Van- 
dycks  and  other  fine  Dutch  paintings  in  these  country  houses,  and 
there  is  even  mention  of  a  park,  belonging  to  Peter  Schuyler,  with 
tropical  plants  and  deer.  But  such  estates  were  exceptional,  and  on 
most  of  them  a  primitive  simplicity  prevailed.  The  houses  were  of 
wood  or  brick,  spacious  and  comfortable.  Through  the  centre  ran  a 
wide  hall,  and  here  the  wife  and  daughters  sat  at  work,  in  the  words 
of  a  contemporary,  "like  Minerva  and  her  -nymphs,  without  head 
dress,  gown,  shoes,  or  stockings."  In  all  classes  a  rude  plenty  reign 
ed  ;  the  table  was  abundant  and  plain ;  cider,  which  had  replaced  the 
beer  of  the  Dutch,  was  the  customary  drink,  and  every  farm  pro 
duced  the  necessaries  of  life,  including  clothing,  soap,  and  tobacco. 
Even  the  poorest  farmers  lived  well,  and  their  numerous  children 
found  ready  employment.  In  the  interior,  and  off  the  line  of  travel 
between  New  York  and  Philadelphia,  the  mode  of  life  was  ruder,  and 
the  dwellings  often  mere  log -huts,  with  unstopped  chinks  and  no 
shutters,  and  so  cold  that,  as  Kalm,  the  Swedish  traveller,  relates,  the 
ink  would  freeze  in  the  pen  and  in  the  inkstand. 

There  was  a  striking  lack  of  amusements.  The  primitive  Swed 
ish  customs  had  been  driven  out,  and  the  Puritan  theory  of  existence 
held  sway.  The  early  laws  were  sharp  against  all  forms  of  indul 
gence  ;  "  stage-plays,  games,  masques,  revels,  bull-baitings,  and  cock- 
fighting,  which  excite  the  people  to  rudeness,  cruelty,  and  irreligion, 
were  to  be  discouraged  and  punished;"  and  men  were  indicted  for 
suffering  cards  to  be  played  in  their  houses ;  while  at  a  much  later 
period  church  lotteries  were  rigorously  suppressed.  The  laws  died 
out,  but  their  spirit  survived,  and  the  only  relaxation  of  the  New  Jer 
sey  farmer  was  to  meet  with  his  neighbors  at  the  club  in  the  village 
tavern  to  drink,  and  perhaps  witness  a  horse-race,  or  to  hang  about 
the  court-house  in  the  crowd  which  gathered  there  on  the  court  day, 
or  go  to  the  fairs  in  the  small  towns,  once  disorderly,  but  now  quiet 
by  the  prohibition  of  liquor-selling.  They  were  a  hard-headed,  pros 
perous,  thrifty  people,  despite  the  absence  of  foreign  trade  and  the  cus 
tomary  depreciated  currency.  They  were  good-natured,  friendly,  and 
hospitable,  with  little  superstition,  and  a  strong  respect  for  law,  order, 


278  HISTORY  OF  THE 

and  vested  rights.  They  recognized  also  the  social  distinctions,  after 
the  New  England  fashion,  and  seats  were  held  in  church  according  to 
office,  age,  estate,  infirmity,  desert,  and  parentage.  They  were  sociable 
too,  and,  especially  in  the  winter-time,  made  many  visits  to  each  oth 
ers'  houses.  The  only  extravagance  was  in  the  way  of  funerals,  when 
the  neighbors  gathered  at  the  house  of  mourning  to  follow  the  body 
to  the  graveyard  attached  to  each  farm,  and  always  retained  by  the 
original  family.  Even  this  was  reformed  when  the  general  movement 
against  lavish  display  at  funerals  was  made  in  1764.  Marriages  were 
quiet,  by  banns  with  the  poor,  and  by  license  among  the  more  pros 
perous.  The  daughter  of  the  average  farmer  was  considered  to  be 
well  dowered  if  she  was  given  a  cow  and  a  side-saddle,  although  the 
connection  between  these  articles  is  not  at  first  apparent.1  The  side 
saddle,  however,  finds  its  explanation  in  the  common  mode  of  travel, 
which  was  on  horseback.  Local  stages  appeared  as  early  as  the  year 
1732,  were  then  extended  to  New  York,  and  were  finally  replaced  by 
the  through  lines  from  Philadelphia.  The  roads  were  good  or  bad, 
according  to  the  nature  of  the  soil,  for  the  people  were  careless  about 
mending  them,  and  found  it  easier  to  go  round  a  fallen  tree  than  to 
remove  it.  The  fact  that  New  Jersey  became  a  sort  of  highway  made 
inns  a  necessity,  and  they  seem  to  have  been  generally  very  good 
and  comfortable,  while  the  constant  passage  of  travellers  did  much 
to  remove  the  isolation  and  break  the  solitary  existence  so  common 
in  the  American  colonies.3 

Thus  far  only  the  agricultural  and  farming  population,  which  con 
stituted  the  larger  portion  of  the  New  Jersey  people,  has  been  men 
tioned,  but  the  professions,  although  small,  were  respectable,  and  their 
members  active  and  influential.  The  churches  were  of  every  Protes 
tant  denomination,  and  from  the  time  of  the  "Concessions"  liberal 
ity  in  religion,  except  during  Lord  Cornbury's  rule,  was  the  consis 
tent  policy  of  the  State.  The  Church  of  England  had  a  nominal  but 
no  real  establishment.  It  started  in  Lord  Cornbury's  time  with  laws 

1  Kalra,  ii.,  25, 49, 123 ;  Burnaby,  pp.  96,  98,  99, 103 ;  Gabriel  Thomas,  West  New 
Jersey;  Murray,  Notes  on  Elizabeth ;  Hist,  of  Salem,  in  West  New  Jersey ;  Sussex 
Centenary,  Edsall's  Address ;  Mickle's  Old  Gloucester ;  Hatfield,  Hist,  of  Elizabeth, 
Description  of  a  Funeral ;  Barber's  Hist.  Coll.  of  New  Jersey,  Early  Legislation ; 
Learning  and  Spicer,  Laws,  1682 ;  Letter  from  New  Jersey,  1745-1756  ;  Hist.  Soc. 
Proc.,  pp.  3, 4,  Journal  of  Spicer ;  vi.,  Rec.  of  Newark ;  Rochefoucauld,  i.  548. 

9  Journal  of  Claude  Blanchard,  p.  134 ;  Kalm,  ii.,  24,  25;  Mickle's  Old  Glouces 
ter;  Barber's  Hist.  Coll.;  Letter  from  New  Jersey,  1745-1756. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  279 

compelling  the  reading  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  and  a  report 
to  the  Bishop  of  London  of  all  dissenting  ministers — a  repressive 
policy  from  the  effects  of  which  it  never  recovered ;  nor  did  it  ever 
gain  a  hold  among  the  people.  By  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  cen 
tury,  according  to  the  reports  furnished  the  Society  for  the  Propaga 
tion  of  the  Gospel,  the  Church  was  in  a  bad,  unsettled  way ;  the  peo 
ple  were  going  over  to  the  dissenters;  the  country  abounded  with 
Anabaptists  and  Quakers  ;  children  were  not  baptized ;  godfathers  and 
godmothers  were  held  in  contempt;  and  the  church  buildings  were 
out  of  repair.  There  were,  in  fact,  few  regular  clergymen,  although 
the  Gospel  Society  maintained  six  missionaries,  who  did  good  work. 
The  Governor  was  the  head  of  the  Church,  the  representative  of 
the  Bishop  of  London,  and  entitled  to  hold  a  prerogative  court ;  but 
his  office  and  his  duties  in  this  respect  must  have  been  almost  wholly 
nominal.  There  were,  of  course,  Episcopalians  in  New  Jersey ;  but 
they  formed  only  a  fraction  of  the  population,  and  had  little  zeal. 
The  most  marked  effect  of  the  Established  Church  here,  as  in  most 
of  the  other  colonies,  was  the  dislike  it  aroused  against  England,  which 
was  heightened  by  the  conduct  of  the  clergy,  who  were,  as  a  rule, 
Tories,  sided  with  the  mother  country,  and  saw  their  churches  closed 
in  consequence  during  the  Revolution.  The  Quakers  were  numerous 
and  influential  in  the  early  days ;  but  the  energetic  and  powerful  sects 
were  the  Scotch  Presbyterians  and  the  New  England  Congregation al- 
ists,  led  by  active  and  earnest  ministers  of  good  character  and  no  little 
learning,  both  as  divines  and  physicians.  Their  influence  is  seen  in  the 
earliest  legislation  and  in  the  strict  Sunday  laws,  which  forbade,  under 
pain  of  stocks,  imprisonment,  and  lashes,  any  work,  travelling,  or  rec 
reation  on  the  Lord's  day.  These  acts  were  somewhat  modified  in 
Lord  Cornbury's  time,  but  they  remained  substantially  in  force  down 
to  the  period  of  the  Revolution.  The  ministers  were  not  well  paid, 
their  fees  were  small,  and  even  the  revenues  which  they  derived  from 
retailing  licenses,  through  the  New  England  custom  of  civil  marriage, 
were  cut  down  by  the  justices  of  the  peace,  who  were  "great  marriage- 
mongers,  and  tied  the  knot  very  rapidly."  Yet,  despite  these  draw 
backs,  the  dissenting  clergy  remained  an  excellent  and  active  body.1 

1  Anderson's  Col.  Church,  ii.,  441 ;  Kalm,  i.,  228  ;  ii.,  25  ;  Murray,  Notes  on  Eliz 
abeth  ;  Hist,  of  Salem,  in  West  New  Jersey ;  Henderson,  The  Days  of  Old ;  Bar 
ber's  Hist.  Coll. ;  Learning  and  Spicer,  Laws,  1693  ;  Letter  from  New  Jersey,  1745 
-1756;  Rev.  Thomas  Thompson's  Journey;  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  vii.,  Elmer's  Constitu 
tional  Government  of  New  Jersey ;  Burnaby,  pp.  102, 103. 


280  HISTORY  OF  THE 

To  these  two  sects  of  Presbyterians  and  Congregation alists  New 
Jersey  owed  the  great  debt  of  such  education  as  she  possessed.  As 
it  was,  schools  were  few  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution,  and  school 
masters  poorly  paid ;  but  such  as  there  were,  were  due  to  no  public 
system,  but  to  the  New  England  practice  of  throwing  the  burden  of 
education  upon  the  towns,  and  requiring  the  election  of  three  men  to 
lay  and  levy  taxes  for  the  support  of  a  school-master.  Thus,  in  the 
towns  of  New  England  origin,  schools  were  maintained ;  and  at  a  later 
period  a  good  grammar  school  was  opened  by  private  enterprise  in 
Elizabeth,  and  was  well  attended.  There  seems,  too,  to  have  been  a 
general  readiness  among  the  people  to  avail  themselves  of  any  oppor 
tunities  of  instruction  that  came  in  their  way.1  The  greatest  service, 
however,  to  the  cause  of  education  was  that  rendered  by  the  Pres 
byterians,  who  first  brought  forward  in  their  synod  a  plan  for  a 
college,  which  they  afterward  founded  in  the  year  1746,  and  removed 
to  Princeton,  where  Nassau  Hall  was  built  ten  years  later.  Here,  at 
the  close  of  the  old  French  war,  in  school  and  college  were  eighty 
students,  taught  by  a  provost  and  two  professors.  The  provost  re 
ceived  two  hundred  pounds  a  year,  and  the  professors  fifty  each; 
while  the  annual  expenses  of  each  student  amounted  to  about  twenty- 
five  pounds.  The  instruction  was  of  good  quality  so  far  as  it  went; 
there  were  the  germs  of  a  library  and  some  philosophical  instruments, 
and  the  college  was  promising  and  wisely  administered.2 

In  the  field  of  general  literature  New  Jersey  had  little  to  show. 
The  first  press  was  established  by  James  Parker  in  the  year  1751, 
at  Woodbridge,  where,  in  1758,  a  magazine  was  issued,  which  had  a 
brief  existence  of  two  years ;  but  the  first  newspaper,  the  New  Jersey 
Gazette,  did  not  appear  until  the  Revolution  had  fairly  begun.  No 
books  by  native  authors  were  published;  but  some  of  the  leading 
men,  like  Governor  Morris,  wrote  well,  and  had  fine  imported  libra 
ries,  which  indicated  classical  and  general  learning,  while  others  con 
tributed  fair  verses,  and  essays,  political  and  otherwise,  to  the  ga 
zettes  of  the  neighboring  capitals.  The  geographical  position  of  the 
province  gave  the  inhabitants  opportunities  for  knowledge  of  the  out 
side  world,  and  for  news  from  the  journals  of  New  York  and  Phila 
delphia.  The  first  mails — once  a  week  in  summer,  and  once  a  fort- 

1  Sussex  Centenary,  Edsall's  Address ;  Hatfield,  Hist,  of  Elizabeth ;  Learning  and 
Spicer,  Laws,  1682-1693  ;  Hist.  Coll.,  Hi.,  Prov.  Courts,  Field ;   Rochefoucauld,  ii., 
433. 

2  Abbe"  Robin,  p.  82 ;  Claude  Blanchard,  p.  134 ;  Murray,  Notes  on  Elizabeth. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  281 

night  in  winter — were  carried  on  horseback  in  the  year  1729 ;  and  in 
1754  Franklin  provided  the  colony  with  three  mails  a  week.  Thus 
New  Jersey,  although  herself  behindhand  in  literary  development  and 
in  outside  connections,  had  the  benefit  of  everything  done  in  this  di 
rection  by  her  great  neighbors  on  the  north  and  west.1 

The  two  other  professions  of  civil  life  did  not  fall  behind  the  clergy 
in  character  and  competency.  Indeed,  in  medicine,  when  it  is  remem 
bered  that  there  was  nothing  but  country  practice,  the  standing  of  New 
Jersey  is  remarkably  good.  Here,  as  in  Pennsylvania,  the  Quakers 
brought  physicians  with  them,  who  eked  out  a  slender  income  by 
trade  and  farming.  Few  of  their  successors  had  a  European  train 
ing.  Most  of  them  acquired  their  education  by  an  apprenticeship, 
involving  care  of  the  shop  and  many  menial  services,  with  some  older 
practitioner,  whose  daughter  the  student,  after  the  apprentice  fashion, 
would  not  infrequently  marry,  and  then  succeed  to  his  father-in-law's 
business.  There  were,  of  course,  many  quacks ;  and  no  improvements 
were  effected  until  they  were  forced  upon  the  profession  by  the  de 
mand  for  surgeons  in  the  French  war.  In  the  year  1766  a  medical 
society  was  founded,  most  intricate  tables  of  small  fees  for  every  con 
ceivable  case  were  adopted,  and  physicians  had  to  pass  an  examination 
at  the  hands  of  established  practitioners  and  before  the  court;  receiv 
ing,  if  successful,  a  testimonial  signed  by  the  judge.  This  led  to  a 
great  advance  in  the  character  of  the  profession,  which  rose  into  im 
portance  only  in  the  years  preceding  the  Revolution.  The  practice 
was  rough  and  unscientific,  but  in  the  fashion  of  the  day,  and  the  life 
was  a  hard  one.  The  doctor  had  to  ride  long  distances,  sometimes 
across  country,  with  his  saddle-bags  stuffed  with  drugs,  and  usually 
consumed  a  fortnight  in  a  round  of  visits.  Midwifery  continued  in 
the  hands  of  women ;  but  the  physicians,  as  a  class,  were  a  respectable 
and  efficient  body.a 

The  lawyers  also  appear  to  have  been  men  of  ability  and  character. 
They  formed  at  first  no  regular  class,  and  attorneys  were  not  in  good 
repute.  The  Quakers  in  West  New  Jersey  forbade  any  pleading  for 
money ;  but  in  the  year  1694  an  act  was  passed  regulating  attorneys; 
soon  after  they  were  required  to  have  a  license  from  the  Governor, 
and  as  early  as  the  year  1733  seven  years'  study  was  required  to  prac- 


1  Barber,  Hist.  Coll.  of  New  Jersey ;  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  iv.,  Morris  Papers ;  Tyler's 
Amer.  Literature. 

8  Wickes,  History  of  Medicine  in  New  Jersey. 


282  HISTORY  OF  THE 

tise  as  an  attorney,  which  indicates  a  desire  to  maintain  a  proper  effi 
ciency  ;  yet,  notwithstanding  these  efforts,  the  profession  and  the  courts 
at  a  later  time  seem  to  have  excited  the  popular  resentment  in  a  man 
ner  which  recalls  the  Regulators  of  North  Carolina.  Where  the  fault 
lay  is  not  easy  to  determine ;  but  the  lawyers  were,  as  a  rule,  respect 
able.  Most  of  them  espoused  the  popular  side  in  the  troubles  with 
England,  the  leaders  of  the  bar,  who  were  Tories,  and  later  refugees, 
forming  the  most  marked  exceptions.1 

The  early  system  of  courts  was  simple  in  the  extreme.  Monthly  or 
town  courts,  and  county  courts  with  elected  judges,  were  established 
where  the  New  England  influence  prevailed,  and  in  the  Quaker  region 
this  example  was  followed.  The  Scotch  immigrants  added  a  court  of 
common  right,  with  both  law  and  equity  jurisdiction.  Then  came  a 
court  of  appeals,  consisting  of  a  member  of  the  council  and  justices 
of  the  peace,  and  a  court  of  oyer  and  terminer,  with  justices  and  one 
appointed  judge.  This  loose  system  was  simply  regulated  by  the  royal 
government,  which  took  to  itself  all  judicial  appointments.  All  cases 
of  debt  and  trespass,  under  forty  shillings,  were  to  be  tried  by  justices 
of  the  peace,  with  an  appeal  to  the  court  of  sessions  or  the  court  of 
common  pleas,  which  replaced  the  county  courts.  From  them  there 
was  an  appeal,  in  all  cases  involving  more  than  ten  pounds,  to  the  su 
preme  court  of  the  province,  composed  of  appointed  judges,  and  com 
bining  the  jurisdiction  of  the  English  Common  Pleas,  King's  Bench, 
and  Exchequer;  and  from  this  supreme  court  an  appeal  in  error  could 
be  taken  to  the  Governor  and  Council,  and  over  two  hundred  pounds,  to 
the  King  in  Council.  The  court  of  chancery,  as  first  established,  con 
sisted  of  the  Governor  and  three  councillors;  but  Hunter,  in  the  year 
1718,  made  good  his  claim  to  act  alone  as  chancellor,  and  this  system, 
together  with  the  fees  fixed  by  Burnet,  which  led  to  much  abuse  and 
extortion,  remained  in  force  until  the  year  1770,  when  the  court  was 
enlarged  and  improved  by  William  Franklin.  Neither  this  court,  how 
ever,  nor  that  of  vice-admiralty,  also  pertaining  to  the  Governor,  had 
great  importance,  and  some  of  the  governors  did  not  care  to  take  the 
trouble  to  act  as  chancellors.  The  common  law,  of  course,  prevailed, 
and  there  was  always  a  great  deal  of  litigation,  often  of  a  very  frivo 
lous  and  petty  character.  The  simplicity  of  the  early  days,  when  Thom 
as  Olive,  the  Quaker  Governor,  sat  on  a  stump  in  his  meadow  and  dis 
pensed  justice,  disappeared  when  the  province  came  to  the  Crown.  In 

1  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  iii.,  Field,  Provincial  Courts. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  283 

provincial  times  the  judges  wore  red  gowns,  with  black  velvet  trimming, 
and  bag  wigs,  and  in  summer  black  silk  gowns,  which  were  also  worn 
by  the  members  of  the  bar.  This  excellent  practice  of  an  appropriate 
dress  went  out  with  the  Revolution,  and  all  subsequent  efforts  to  re 
vive  it  failed.  The  general  administration  of  justice  was  good  and  ef 
fective,  and  the  judges  of  the  supreme  court,  though  too  apt  to  be  un 
der  the  influence  of  the  Governor,  were,  as  a  rule,  trained  and  capable 
lawyers.1 

The  government  of  New  Jersey,  at  first  proprietary,  was  transferred 
to  the  Crown  as  early  as  the  year  1702.  It  consisted  of  a  Governor 
appointed  by  the  Crown ;  a  Council  of  twelve  members,  in  theory  ap 
pointed  by  the  Crown,  in  reality  by  the  Governor,  who  took  six  from 
East  and  six  from  West  New  Jersey ;  and  an  Assembly  elected  by  the 
freeholders.  The  Governor  could  veto,  prorogue,  dissolve,  and  convene ; 
the  Council  formed  the  Upper  House,  and  each  House  had  a  veto.  The 
Governor  and  Council  made  all  appointments  by  writ  of  privy  seal 
and  in  the  name  of  the  Crown,  and  issued  patents  for  land,  from  which 
the  fees  were  considerable.  The  system,  as  a  whole,  differed  in  no  es 
sential  respect  from  the  ordinary  royal  governments  in  America.  There 
was  the  usual  jealousy  of  the  Governor  common  to  all  the  colonies, 
which  found  vent  on  all  occasions,  and  never  hesitated  to  gratify  it 
self  even  at  the  expense  of  the  public  welfare.  The  absence  of  trade 
narrowed  the  grievances  against  the  mother  country  to  the  protection 
extended  to  naval  deserters,  for  desertion  was  followed  by  the  press- 
gang,  and  the  press  by  fights,  lawsuits,  and  ill-feeling.  The  general 
tone  of  the  people,  however,  was  very  loyal,  as  is  illustrated  by  a 
curious  passage  in  an  old  record,  where  it  appears  that  one  "  Richard 
Buddy  was  prosecuted  for  damning  his  Grace  the  Duke  of  Cumber 
land."  There  was,  indeed,  no  good  ground  for  anything  but  loyalty. 
Taxes,  chiefly  levied  on  land,  were  light,  and  although  the  militia  in 
cluded  in  theory  every  man  between  sixteen  and  sixty,  the  law  was  not 
very  rigidly  enforced,  and  New  Jersey  was  saved  by  her  protected  sit 
uation  from  the  scourge  of  French  and  Indian  war.8 

1  A  detailed  account  of  Bench  and  Bar  in  New  Jersey  may  be  found  in  Hist. 
Soc.,  Hi.,  Field,  Provincial  Courts ;  see  also  Burnaby,  p.  102 ;  Gabriel  Thomas ; 
Learning  and  Spicer,  New  Jersey  Laws,  1675, 1682 ;  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  vii.,  Elmer's 
Const.  Government  in  New  Jersey. 

8  Burnaby,  pp.  96,  101,  102;  Murray, Notes  on  Elizabeth;  Learning  and  Spicer, 
Laws,  1675  ;  Sussex  Centenary,  Edsall's  Address  ;  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  iv.,  Morris  Pa 
pers  ;  vii.,  Elmer's  Const.  Government  in  New  Jersey. 


284  HISTORY  OF  THE 

The  people  were,  as  a  whole,  a  conservative,  thrifty  community  of 
English  farmers.  They  were  pure  in  race,  and  differed  in  this  re 
spect  from  the  other  colonies  of  the  middle  group ;  but  they  never 
theless  strongly  partook,  socially  and  politically,  of  the  peculiar  quali 
ties  which  distinguish  New  York  and  Pennsylvania. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  285 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

NEW  YORK  FROM  1609  TO  1765. 

IN  New  York  was  made  the  only  settlement  which  seemed  at  any 
time  seriously  to  threaten  the  dominion  of  the  English  race  in 
America.  An  Englishman,  the  famous  Henry  Hudson,  in  the 
pay  of  Holland,  first  discovered  and  explored  the  noble  river 
which  bears  his  name,  and  one  of  the  earliest  permanent  settlements 
of  Europeans  in  the  New  World  was  the  result.  Adventure  brought 
men  to  Virginia ;  politics  and  religion  to  New  England ;  philanthropy 
to  Georgia ;  but  New  York  was  founded  by  trade  and  for  trade,  and 
for  nothing  else.  The  settlement  on  the  island  of  Manhattan  was  due 
to  the  active  spirit  of  Dutch  commerce.  The  shrewd  merchants  of  Am 
sterdam  saw  great  profit  in  the  cheap  furs  to  be  obtained  of  the  In 
dians,  and  their  vessels  began  to  come  in  numbers,  and  make  repeated 
voyages  to  the  Hudson  soon  after  the  discovery  of  the  river.  A  post, 
consisting  of  a  few  small  houses  or  huts,  sprang  up  on  Manhattan,  and 
the  hardy  Dutch  captains  and  seamen  began  to  push  out  in  all  direc 
tions,  extending  their  trade  and  exploring  the  bays  and  rivers  of  all 
the  adjacent  coasts.  Christiaensen  worked  his  way  up  the  river,  built 
a  fort,  and  founded  another  post,  near  the  present  site  of  Al 
bany.  Adrian  Block  explored  Long  Island  Sound  and  the 
coasts  of  New  England,  while  May  had  been  to  the  southward  as  far 
as  the  cape  which  bears  his  name. 

The  profits  of  the  fur-trade  were  so  great  that  others  began  to  turn 

their  eyes  to  the  new  region  ;  and  the  original  adventurers  among  the 

merchants  hastily  formed  the  New  Netherland  Company,  and 

obtained  a  monopoly  of  the  trade  for  three  years.    During  that 

period  everything  went  on  prosperously.     A  post  was  established  on 

the  South  or  Delaware  river,  and  the  Dutch  ships  went  so  far,  both 

to  the  north  and  south,  that  they  threatened  interference  with  the 

English  of  Plymouth  and  Virginia  alike.     But  while  trade  was  thus 

advanced  in  all  directions  nothing  was  done  for  colonization.     The 


286  HISTORY  OF  THE 

States -gen  eral,  however,  gained  a  knowledge  of  the  value   of  their 
new  possessions,  and  when  the  charter  of  the  New  Netherland  Com 
pany  expired,  they   refused   charters   to   the   small   merchants,  and 
frowned   upon   their  trade.     After   an   interval    of  uncertainty,  the 
problem  was  solved  by  the  establishment  of  the  great  West  India 
Company,  similar  to  the  immense  monopoly  of  the  East ;  and 
to  the  Amsterdam  chamber  of  this  new  company  the  New 
Netherlands  were  intrusted.    They  formally  took  possession,  proceed 
ed  to  stop  the  small  private  traders,  and,  after  a  year's  delay,  sent 
out  a  body  of  Walloons,  who  had  been  driven  from  their 
homes  by  Spanish  persecution,  to  settle  in  the  new  territories 
of  Holland.     These  first  immigrants  were  planted  near  Albany,  while 
others  who  followed  settled  on  the  South  river,  on  Long  Island,  and 
some  on  Manhattan.     The  settlements  prospered ;  the  people  were 
thrifty  and  industrious,  and  a  lively  traffic  sprang  up  with  the 
Indians  everywhere.     During  this  time  May  first  acted  as  Di 
rector  ;  then  William  Verhulst ;  and,  lastly,  Peter  Minuit,  who 
united  all  the  settlements  under  one  government,  bought  the  island  of 
Manhattan  from  the  natives,  extended  the  settlement  there,  and  with 
drew  from  Fort  Orange  all  but  a  small  garrison,  on  account  of  Indian 
troubles.    The  Company  built  warehouses,  Fort  Amsterdam  was  begun, 
and  relations  were  opened  with  Plymouth  of  a  friendly  character,  al 
though  even  then  Bradford  questioned  the  right  of  the  Dutch 
to  their  possessions.     Mills  were  also  erected,  and  trade  rapidly 
increased ;  but  it  was  all  trade,  and  colonization  did  not  prosper  nor 
agriculture  develop. 

The  Company  met  this  difficulty  by  the  creation  of  what  was  in 
tended  to  be  a  powerful  and  noble  class.  A  charter  was  agreed 
to,  which  gave  any  member  of  the  Company  founding  a  colony 
of  fifty  persons  the  right  to  an  estate  with  a  river  frontage  of  sixteen 
miles,  and  of  otherwise  indefinite  extent,  while  with  these  estates  went 
every  sort  of  feudal  right,  including  manorial  courts  and  the  privi 
lege  of  trading  within  the  dominions  of  the  Company.  Leading  di 
rectors  promptly  took  advantage  of  this  great  opportunity.  Godyn 
and  Blornmaert  secured  the  region  of  the  South  river;  Kiliaen  Van 
Rensselaer  that  about  Albany ;  and  Michael  Pauw  that  of  Hoboken. 
These  purchases,  which  were  of  enormous  extent,  alarmed  the  Com 
pany,  who  ordered  the  patroons  to  take  partners — a  command  they 
easily  evaded  by  taking  each  other  in  that  capacity.  Colonization 
speedily  followed.  Rensselaer  established  Rensselaerswyck,  near  Fort 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  287 

Orange ;   and  Godyn  and  Blommaert,  with  De  Vries  and  others,  the 
village  of  Swaanendael,  on  the  South  river.     Not  content  with 
their  landed  possessions,  the  patroons  proceeded  to  absorb 
all  the  trade  of  these  vast  regions ;  but  this  was  more  than  the  Com 
pany  could  bear.     An  angry  order  was  passed  forbidding  all  trade  ex 
cept  that  of  the  Company,  and  insuring  a  plentiful  supply  of  quarrels ; 
while  Minuit,  who  was  thought  to  favor  the  patroons,  was  re 
called.    On  his  way  home  he  was  seized  by  the  English,  on  ac 
count  of  trading  in  their  dominions,  and  was  only  released  after  a  long 
correspondence.    Difficulties  seemed  now  to  beset  the  Dutch.    The  In 
dians  tore  down  the  arms  of  Holland  on  the  South  river,  and  this  led 
to  a  war,  a  massacre  of  the  settlers,  and  the  destruction  of  Swaanen 
dael  ;  so  that  when  De  Vries,  the  patroon,  and  the  best  of  all  the  Dutch 
leaders,  came  out,  he  met  with  nothing  but  the  ruins  of  his  village ;  and, 
after  a  visit  to  Virginia,  made  his  way  to  the  north.     There  he 
found,  at  Manhattan,  a  new  Governor,  Wouter  Van  Twiller,  a 
wretched  clerk  from  the  Company's  office,  appointed  by  Van  Rensse- 
laer's  influence,  and  as  miserably  incompetent  as  a  man  could  well  be 
for  his  post.     His  first  feat  was  to  bluster  at  and  threaten  an  English 
vessel,  which  sailed  up  the  river  despite  his  threats,  and  which  was  only 
brought  back  with  difficulty  by  a  force  sent  out  for  the  purpose.    His 
next  exploit  was  to  refuse  permission  to  a  vessel  belonging  to  De 
Vries  to  sail  down  the  Sound,  and  he  actually  brought  the  cannon  of 
the  fort  to  bear  upon  her ;  but  De  Vries  taunted  him  with  the  affair 
with  the  English,  and  the  vessel  proceeded  unmolested  on  her  voyage. 
These  acts  were  fair  examples  of  Van  Twiller's  miserable  and  ludicrous 
administration. 

Nothing,  however,  could  damp  the  spirit  of  trade.  Corssen  estab 
lished  a  post  on  the  Schuylkill ;  and  Van  Curler,  following  up  the 
traders  in  the  east,  built  Fort  Good  Hope,  on  the  Connecticut.  Down 
came  the  Plymouth  people  and  built  another  post,  and  the  founda 
tions  of  a  fine  contention  were  securely  laid.  The  Virginians  also 
pushed  up  the  South  river;  but  Van  Twiller,  in  this  instance,  mus 
tered  enough  energy  to  repel  the  intruders.  The  English  difficulties 
were  carried  to  Europe,  too,  in  the  case  of  the  ship  expelled  from  the 
Hudson,  and  a  lively  correspondence  ensued  between  the  home  Gov 
ernments,  which,  after  the  fashion  of  colonial  squabbles,  came  to  noth 
ing.  Meanwhile  the  town  on  Manhattan  grew  slowly.  New  houses 
and  a  substantial  church  were  built,  while  the  "staple  right"  brought 
a  revenue  to  the  town  from  every  passing  vessel.  Still  the  colony 


288  HISTORY  OF  THE 

did  not  thrive.  The  patroon  system  kept  settlers  away,  and  the  pa 
ternal  government  of  a  trading  corporation  checked  all  vigorous  and 
independent  growth,  while  Van  Twiller  went  steadily  from  bad  to 
worse.  He  engaged  in  childish  quarrels  with  every  one,  from  the 
minister  down,  and  finally  sent  home  Van  Dincklagen,  the  schout, 
one  of  the  few  really  competent  men  in  the  town.  This  utter  mis- 
government  led  at  last  to  Van  Twiller's  removal.  He  retired  in  pos 
session  of  large  tracts  of  land,  which  he  had  succeeded  in  ac 
quiring,  and  was  replaced  by  William  Kieft,  a  bankrupt  mer 
chant  of  bad  reputation.  Kieft  practically  abolished  the  Council,  and 
got  all  power  into  his  own  hands ;  but  he  had  some  sense  of  order. 
His  first  report  showed  that  Van  Twiller  had  allowed  the  property 
of  the  Company,  both  buildings  and  vessels,  to  go  to  ruin,  and  that 
the  lawless  crews  of  the  trading -vessels  smuggled  goods,  cheated, 
and  ran  riot  in  the  town.  Kieft  made  a  series  of  laws  which 
checked  these  abuses ;  but,  despite  his  improvements,  the  place  re 
mained  a  mere  trading  -  post,  and  would  not  develop  into  a  colo 
ny.  The  patroons  were  the  curse  of  the  scheme,  and  too  powerful 
to  be  overthrown ;  so  they  proposed,  as  a  remedy  for  the  existing 
evils,  that  their  powers  and  privileges  should  be  greatly  enlarged. 
The  Company  had  bought  back  some  of  the  lands ;  but  they  were  still 
helpless,  and  the  State  would  do  nothing  for  them.  In  this  crisis 
they  had  a  return  of  good  sense,  and  solved  the  problem  by  de 
stroying  their  stifling  monopoly.  They  threw  the  trade  to  New 
Netherlands  open  to  all  comers,  and  promised  the  absolute  owner 
ship  of  land  on  the  payment  of  a  small  quit-rent.  The  gates  were 
open  at  last,  and  the  tide  of  emigration  swept  in.  De  Vries,  who  had 
bought  land  on  Staten  Island,  came  out  with  a  company ;  while  ship 
followed  ship  filled  with  colonists,  and  English  came  from  Virginia, 
and  still  more  from  New  England.  Men  of  property  and  standing 
began  to  turn  their  attention  to  the  New  Netherlands;  fine  well- 
stocked  farms  rapidly  covered  Manhattan,  and  healthy  progress  had 
at  last  begun.  Thus  strengthened,  the  Company  restricted  the 
patroons  to  a  water-front  of  one  mile  and  a  depth  of  two,  but 
left  them  their  feudal  privileges,  benefits  which  practically  accrued  to 
Van  Rensselaer,  whose  colony  at  Beverwyck  had  alone,  among  the 
manors,  thriven  and  grown  at  the  expense  of  the  Company. 

The  opening  of  trade  proved  in  one  respect  a  disaster.  The  cau 
tious  policy  of  the  Company  was  abandoned,  and  greedy  traders  who 
had  already  begun  the  business,  and  were  now  wholly  unrestrained,  has- 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  289 

tened  to  make  their  fortunes  by  selling  arms  to  the  Indians  in  return 
for  almost  unlimited  quantities  of  furs.  Thus  the  Mohawks  obtain 
ed  guns  enough  to  threaten  both  the  Dutch  and  all  the  surrounding 
tribes,  and  this  perilous  condition  was  made  infinitely  worse  by  the 
mad  policy  of  Kieft.  He  first  tried  to  exact  tribute  from  the  Indians 
near  Manhattan,  then  offered  a  price  for  the  head  of  any  of  the  Rar- 
itans  who  had  destroyed  the  settlement  of  De  Vries ;  and,  when  a 
young  man  was  murdered  by  a  Weckquaesgeek,  the  Governor  plan 
ned  immediate  war.  In  all  this  he  had  no  sympathy  from  the  peo 
ple,  who  realizing  their  weakness,  had  no  wish  to  fight,  and  the  pop 
ular  feeling  rose  so  high,  even  among  the  phlegmatic  Dutch 
men,  that  Kieft  was  obliged  to  call  a  public  meeting,  at  which 
twelve  select-men  were  chosen  to  advise  the  Governor.  The  "twelve" 
counselled  peace,  a  demand  for  compensation  for  the  murder,  and  that 
the  Governor  should  put  himself  at  the  head  of  the  troops.  Kieft  thank 
ed  them  for  their  advice,  and  issued  a  proclamation  forbidding  popular 
meetings ;  but  the  people  of  New  Amsterdam  could  not  undo  the  work 
of  the  traders.  The  Mohawks,  armed  by  the  Dutch,  swept  down  from 
the  north,  driving  the  river  tribes  before  them.  The  fugitives  sought 
refuge  in  the  Dutch  settlements,  and  were  well  received,  especially  by  De 
Vries,  who  sought  to  give  them  every  protection ;  but  the  helpless  con 
dition  of  his  former  enemies  only  aroused  Kieft  to  fury.  Two 
or  three  of  the  "twelve,"  who  had  been  dissolved,  met  and  pre 
sented  a  petition  to  the  Governor  that  the  Indians  should  be  attacked. 
Acting  on  this  illegal  and  fraudulent  petition,  Kieft,  despite  the  remon 
strances  of  De  Vries,  ordered  out  the  troops,  and  sent  them  across 
the  river  to  Pavonia  and  Corlaer's  Hook,  where  most  of  the  runaway 
Indians  were  assembled.  The  wretched  fugitives,  surprised  by  their 
supposed  protectors,  were  butchered,  in  the  dead  of  a  winter's  night, 
without  mercy,  and  the  bloody  soldiers  returned  in  the  morning  to 
Manhattan,  where  they  were  warmly  welcomed  by  Kieft.  This  mas 
sacre  lighted  up  at  once  the  flames  of  war  among  all  the  neighboring 
tribes  of  Algonquins.  All  the  outlying  farms  were  laid  waste,  and 
their  owners  murdered,  while  the  smaller  settlements  were  destroyed. 
Vriesendael  alone  was  spared.  A  peace,  patched  up  by  De  Vries, 
gave  a  respite  until  summer,  and  then  the  war  raged  more  fiercely 
than  before,  the  Indians  burning  and  destroying  in  every  direction, 
while  trade  was  broken  up,  and  the  crews  of  the  vessels  slaughtered. 

Popular  feeling  now  ran  so  high  against  Kieft  that  his  life  was 
in  danger ;  and  although  he  tried  to  put  down  resistance  with  a  high 

19 


290  HIST OE Y  OF  THE 

hand,  he  was  overborne  and  compelled  to  call  a  meeting  of  the 
people.  "  Eight  men  "  were  chosen,  who  this  time  seized  the  govern 
ment,  organized  a  force  of  English  and  Dutch,  under  the  command  of 
John  Underbill,  of  Pequod  fame,  and,  this  done,  addressed  letters  to 
the  Company,  setting  forth  their  miserable  condition  and  the  need  of 
relief  to  save  the  colony.  The  winter  dragged  heavily  along,  until  an 
appeal  from  the  English  on  Long  Island  led  to  an  expedition 
which  sacked  two  Indian  villages,  and  killed  a  hundred  warri 
ors,  and  this  was  followed  by  another  campaign  directed  by  Underbill. 
The  principal  Indian  town  in  Connecticut  was  taken,  where  seven  hun 
dred  warriors  were  gathered ;  the  feeble  defences  were  stormed ;  the 
wigwams  fired,  and  all  the  savages  were  put  to  the  sword.  This  terri 
ble  slaughter  crippled  the  Eastern  tribes,  and  put  an  end  to  their  rav 
ages  ;  but  the  river  tribes  still  continued  hostile,  and  kept  the  colonists 
shut  up  in  Manhattan.  The  "eight  men  "  desired  further  vigorous  meas 
ures,  and  the  employment  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  soldiers  who  had  ar 
rived  from  CuraQoa ;  but  there  was  no  money,  the  Company  was  bank 
rupt,  and  Kieft  made  a  bad  matter  worse  by  attempting  to  raise  a  rev 
enue  from  a  tax  on  beer.  Thus  the  government  blundered  on  without 
a  single  useful  measure,  until  at  last  the  **  eight  men  "  addressed  an 
other  letter  to  the  Company,  demanding  flatly  the  recall  of  Kieft,  and 
the  right  of  choosing  local  officers,  who  should  send  deputies  to  con 
fer  with  the  Governor  and  Council.  This  definite  request  produced 
an  immediate  effect  upon  the  bankrupt  Company  in  Holland,  who  de 
termined  upon  the  recall  of  Kieft  and  the  appointment  of  Stuyvesant; 
but  a  long  delay  ensued  before  the  change  was  actually  made,  and  in 
the  interval  the  Indian  tribes,  weary  at  last  of  war,  came  in  and 
made  peace.  Kieft  continued  his  quarrels ;  but  his  power  was 
gone,  and  he  was  hated  as  the  principal  cause  of  all  the  misfortunes 
of  the  colony. 

The  results  of  his  miserable  administration  were  certainly  disastrous 
enough.  Sixteen  hundred  Indians  had  perished  in  the  war ;  but  all 
the  outlying  Dutch  settlements  and  farms  had  been  destroyed,  and  the 
prosperity  of  the  colony  had  received  a  check  from  which  it  recovered 
very  slowly.  In  Connecticut  the  English  had  left  the  Dutch  merely 
a  nominal  hold,  and  had  really  destroyed  their  power  in  the  East.  On 
the  South  river  the  Swedes  had  settled,  and,  disregarding  Kieft's  blus 
tering  proclamations,  had  founded  strong  and  growing  colonies.  The 
restless  New  Englanders  had  come  to  the  same  region ;  but  these  ad 
venturers,  Kieft  first,  and  then  the  Swedes,  had  successfully  expelled. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  291 

Still  the  power  of  Holland  sank  before  that  of  Sweden,  and  the  ener 
getic  Printz  bullied  and  abused  the  Dutch  commanders  at  Fort  Nas 
sau,  and  made  himself  master  of  the  Delaware.  The  interests  of  Hol 
land  were  at  a  low  ebb  when  Peter  Stuyvesant,  of  uncertain 
reputation,  imperious,  high-tempered,  energetic,  and  persistent, 
landed  at  Manhattan  amid  the  shouts  of  the  delighted  people,  and  took 
under  his  protection  his  beaten  and  hated  predecessor,  who  was  re 
viled  by  his  enemies,  even  at  the  moment  of  surrendering  his  office. 
The  matter,  however,  did  not  stop  here.  Kuyter  and  Melyn,  two  of  the 
"  eight  men,"  and  citizens  of  good  standing,  demanded  a  rigid  inves 
tigation  of  Kieft's  administration.  Stuyvesant's  arrogant  and  tyran 
nical  temper  at  once  broke  out.  He  refused  to  recognize  Kuyter  and 
Melyn  officially,  and  with  his  subservient  Council  dismissed  the  com 
plaint.  Kieft  then  turned  on  his  assailants,  accused  them  of  getting 
up  the  appeal  to  Holland,  and  of  disturbing  the  peace ;  and  Kuyter  and 
Melyn  were  at  once  convicted,  heavily  fined,  and  banished,  Stuyvesant 
grumbling  because  he  could  not  have  Melyn  put  to  death.  Kieft  soon 
after  sailed,  master  of  an  ample  fortune,  and  taking  his  two  foes  with 
him  as  prisoners.  The  vessel  was  wrecked  on  the  English  coast,  Kieft 
was  drowned,  and  Kuyter  and  Melyn,  who  were  saved,  hastened  to 
Amsterdam  to  demand  relief  and  reparation. 

This  violence  and  injustice  were  fit  precursors  of  Stnyvesant's  rule. 
Personally  honest  and  very  energetic,  he  gained  the  hatred  of  every 
one  by  the  rough-and-ready  manner  in  which  he  attempted  to  improve 
public  affairs,  raise  money  by  taxation,  and  regulate  trade.  The  taxes 
were  ill-judged,  burdensome,  and  slowly  paid  ;  while  the  Governor  was 
accused  of  illicit  trade  in  his  efforts  to  stop  smuggling.  Prosperity 
diminished,  the  colony  languished,  there  was  no  revenue,  and  Stuyve 
sant  was  at  last  compelled  to  order  the  towns  to  elect  representatives, 
from  whom  a  board  of  nine  men  was  to  be  chosen.  This  board  had 
merely  advisory  powers,  and  some  judicial  duties ;  six  were  to  go  out 
annually,  and  their  places  were  to  be  filled  by  appointment.  This 
close  corporation  was  the  best  substitute  for  popular  representation 
obtainable,  and  the  only  defence  of  the  popular  rights  which  Stuyve 
sant  utterly  disregarded.  The  director  adopted  the  same  treatment 
for  foreign  opponents  that  he  did  for  the  colonists.  The  agent  of 
Lady  Stirling  was  promptly  ousted  from  Long  Island,  and  Stuyvesant 
soon  after  seized  a  ship  at  New  Haven  for  trading  without  license. 
At  this  the  New  Englanders  broke  out  into  fierce  remonstrance,  and 
sheltered  runaway  servants,  while  Stuyvesant  retaliated  by  offering  a 


292  HISTORY  OF  THE 

refuge  to  all  fugitives,  criminal  or  otherwise,  from  New  Haven ;  and 
thus  the  foundation  for  a  bitter  quarrel  was  solidly  laid.  In  the  same 
spirit  he  attempted  to  control  the  property  of  the  Van  Rensselaers ; 
but  their  agent  kept  him  off,  and  he  had  only  the  pleasure  of  issuing 
blustering  proclamations.  Matters  went  from  bad  to  worse,  and  discon 
tent  grew  beneath  oppression,  foreign  quarrels,  and  increased  taxation. 
The  first  board  of  nine  became  intractable,  and  a  new  one  was 
appointed,  which  at  once  set  about  sending  a  delegation  to  Hol 
land.  Stuy  vesant  denied  them  the  right  of  popular  meeting,  and  threw 
the  leader,  Van  der  Donck,  into  prison ;  while  Melyn's  return,  with  a  re 
versal  of  his  sentence,  and  a  mandamus  to  Stuyvesant  to  appear  and  de 
fend  himself,  added  fuel  to  the  flames,  and  led  to  an  actual  brawl  at  a 
public  meeting.  The  popular  clamor  at  last  reached  such  a  pitch  that 
Stuyvesant  was  forced  to  allow  Van  der  Donck  and  two  others  to  pro 
ceed  to  Holland  ;  sending  his  secretary,  Van  Tienhoven,  to  defend  him. 
The  petitioners  demanded  burgher  government ;  that  Holland  should 
take  the  colony ;  and  the  recall  of  Stuyvesant,  who  was  ably  defend' 
ed  by  his  secretary.  The  States-general  passed  some  good  measures 
for  the  government  of  the  colony,  and  ordered  Stuyvesant  to  return ; 
but  the  Company  did  not  accede,  and  Stuyvesant  went  on  in  the  old 
way.  He  refused  to  fill  vacancies  in  the  "  nine  men,"  thus  dissolv 
ing  the  board ;  drove  Melyn  out  of  the  town,  and  compelled  him  to 
fortify  himself  in  his  manor  on  Staten  Island ;  and  went  about  whip 
ping  and  imprisoning  all  who  dared  to  oppose  him. 

In  all  his  contests  thus  far  Stuyvesant  seems  to  have  relied  upon 
his  English  subjects  on  Long  Island,  and  he  appointed  two 
of  them  boundary  commissioners,  who  speedily  concluded  a 
treaty  with  their  kinsmen,  by  which  the  Dutch  lost  half  Long  Island 
and  the  whole  of  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island.     This  led  to  fresh 
complaints  from  the  popular  party ;  and  soon  after,  the  States-general 
decreeing  the  establishment  of  burgher  government,  including 
courts  and  modifications  of  trade  laws,  the  Company  gave  way, 
and  Van  der  Donck  returned  with  this  decree  as  the  fruit  of  his  toil. 
Stuyvesant,  in  view  of  pending  war  with  England,  was  not  recalled, 
and  he  boldly  evaded  the  decree  of  the  States-general  by  appointing 
all  the  officers  in  the  new  government,  including  the  obnoxious  Van 
Tienhoven  as  schout.     Even  this  meagre  concession  was  eagerly  ac 
cepted  by  the  people,  and  they  cheerfully  aided  Stuyvesant  in  im 
proving  defences  against  the  threatened  war,  which,  fortunately  for 
the  Dutch,  never  came  to  anything.     The  English  of  Connecticut 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMEHICA.  293 

were  eager  to  fight,  but  Massachusetts  would  not  move.  Rhode  Isl 
and,  unfettered  by  the  confederation,  entered  upon  a  ludicrous  war 
upon  her  own  account ;  and  under  her  standard  Underbill,  who  had 
already  been  twice  arrested  for  raising  riots  on  Long  Island,  marched 
with  twenty  men,  and  formally  took  possession  of  the  empty  Dutch 
fort  on  the  Connecticut;  selling  the  land  twice  over  for  his  own  ben 
efit,  and  finally  effacing  the  last  vestiges  of  Dutch  ownership  in  New 
England.  Rhode  Island  vessels  preyed  with  rare  impartiality,  in  a 
small  way,  upon  the  commerce  of  both  Holland  and  England,  but  this 
was  all.  There  were  rumors  of  Indian  wars  started  by  Dutch  influ 
ence,  and  the  towns  of  Connecticut  became  much  excited ;  but  still 
Massachusetts  held  back.  At  last  Cromwell  took  the  matter 

1  f*  £  M 

in  hand,  and  sent  out  a  fleet  and  soldiers;  but  there  were 
more  delays,  and  peace  relieved  the  New  Netherlands  from  danger. 

It  was  a  welcome  deliverance  to  the  Dutch ;  for  after  the  first  alarm 
of  war  discontent  had  again  sprung  up  in  New  Amsterdam,  and  the  offi 
cers  of  the  burgher  government  headed  the  opposition,  which  received 
a  powerful  addition  from  the  English  of  Long  Island — Stuyvesant's 
quondam  allies.  A  convention  of  delegates  from  the  towns  was  call 
ed,  in  which  the  English — far  better  political  agitators  than  their  kins 
men  of  Holland — took  the  lead,  and  a  sharp  memorial  was  drawn  up 
by  Baxter  against  Stuyvesant,  who  denied  their  right  to  meet,  and, 
after  much  discussion,  the  convention  sent  an  agent  to  Holland.  The 
news  of  peace,  which  freed  the  Dutch  from  the  imminent  peril  of 
Cromwell's  soldiers  and  sailors,  was  accompanied  with  letters  from 
the  Company  strongly  supporting  the  Director;  and  thus  strengthened, 
Stuyvesant  arrested  Baxter  and  Hubbard,  who  were  raising  a  new  re 
bellion  on  their  own  account  in  the  Long  Island  towns,  and  threw  them 
into  prison.  In  appearance,  at  least,  the  Governor  was  stronger  than 
ever.  During  this  troubled  period  Stny  vesant  had  found  time  to  look 
into  the  affairs  of  the  South  river,  where  the  Dutch  power,  confined 
to  Fort  Nassau,  was  at  low  ebb.  The  Dutch  were  helpless  among  the 
Swedes,  and  treated  as  mere  trespassers.  Stuyvesant's  first  act 
was  to  abandon  Fort  Nassau,  and  build,  below  the  Swedish 
posts,  Fort  Casimir,  thus  commanding  navigation.  Printz  protested ; 
but  both  parties  were  afraid  of  the  English  and  their  claims,  and 
nothing  was  done  beyond  the  despatch  of  messengers  to  Sweden  to 
complain  of  the  invasion.  Printz's  successor,  Rysingh,  coming  out 
with  a  force  of  three  hundred  men  two  years  later,  immediately  capt 
ured  Fort  Casimir,  and  subjected  the  Dutch  to  Swedish  rule,  which 


294  HISTORY  OF  THE 

caused  a  burst  of  indignation  in  New  Netherlands  and  in  the  Company ; 
and  after  much  delay  Stuyvesant  sailed  with  seven  ships  and  more  than 
six  hundred  men — a  powerful  force,  which  made  all  hope  of  resistance 
impossible.     The  Swedes  surrendered,  and  the  Swedish  power 
was  finally  overthrown.     The  bankrupt  Company  was,  how 
ever,  burdened  with  its  conquest,  so  they  gave  part  of  it  to  the  city  of 
Amsterdam ;  New  Amstel  was  founded;  and  emigrants  came  out.    But 
the  colony  did  not  thrive ;  disease  was  rife,  and  complete  possession 
seemed  worse  than  doubtful  ownership  of  the  Delaware. 

While  Stuyvesant  was  conquering  the  Swedes  an  Indian  war  broke 
out  in  the  neighborhood  of  Manhattan  ;  and,  in  the  absence  of  troops, 
the  savages  massacred  the  inhabitants  of  Pavonia,  and  harried  Long- 
Island.  Stuyvesant,  summoned  back  in  haste,  by  his  bravery  and  vig 
or  checked  the  war,  and  soon  after  obtained  peace ;  but  there  was  now 
a  fresh  danger  to  New  Netherlands  in  the  advances  of  the  French,  and 
only  the  shrewd  and  peaceful  policy  pursued  by  the  patroon's  people 
at  Beverwyck  kept  the  Mohawks  neutral,  and  saved  the  settle 
ments  from  utter  destruction  during  a  second  Indian  war,  which 
began  with  a  massacre  at  Esopus,  and  went  on,  intermittently,  for  more 
than  five  years.  Relieved,  however,  from  his  most  serious  troubles,  Stuy 
vesant  turned  his  energy  into  a  new  channel,  and  undertook  to  enforce 
religious  uniformity  by  a  relentless  persecution  of  Lutherans  and  Quak 
ers.  He  arrested  and  imprisoned  the  former,  refused  them  a  meeting 
house,  and  drove  their  ministers  from  the  colony,  while  the  Quakers 
suffered  still  more  ;  they  were  arrested,  tried,  and  imprisoned ;  beaten, 
hung  up  by  their  hands,  forced  to  hard  labor,  and  subjected  to  every 
form  of  abuse  and  punishment.  This  policy  had  little  result,  except 
to  create  ill  feeling,  and  found  no  sympathy  among  a  people  who  were 
profoundly  indifferent  on  such  matters ;  neither  did  it  interfere  with 
the  prosperity  and  growth  of  New  Netherlands,  which  seemed  at  last 
to  have  reached  firm  ground,  and  was  steadily  advancing  in  wealth  and 
population. 

In  these  years  of  prosperity,  however,  the  end  of  the  Dutch  power 
drew  on.  The  danger  did  not  come  from  the  Indians,  nor  from  the 
French,  but  from  the  kindred  race  which  was  destined  to  rule  the 
continent.  At  the  north,  Massachusetts  threatened  to  settle  upon  the 
banks  of  the  Hudson ;  on  Long  Island,  the  English  of  Connecticut 
pressed  hard  upon  the  boundary  lines ;  on  the  South  river,  New  Eng- 
landers  traded  in  defiance  of  Dutch  laws  and  Dutch  forts ;  and  the 
southern  English  began  to  encroach  upon  Dutch  territory.  Lord  Bal' 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  295 

timore  renewed  his  claim  to  the  whole  South  river  region ;  and  his 
agents  demanding  a  surrender  of  the  province,  bade  fair  to  wrest  it 
from  the  Dutch  as  the  latter  had  from  the  Swedes.  By  skilful  and  pro 
tracted  negotiation,  the  Dutch  warded  off  this  attack,  and  trans 
ferred  the  controversy  to  Europe.  At  the  same  time  they  turn 
ed  over  the  whole  province  to  the  city  of  Amsterdam ;  but  the  effort 
was  vain ;  the  colony  of  the  south  continued  feeble  and  languishing, 
and  the  temporary  success  against  Lord  Baltimore  was  soon  clouded 
by  events  at  the  north.  In  the  charter  which  Winthrop  obtained  from 
Charles  II.,  Connecticut  and  New  Haven  were  consolidated,  and 
all  Long  Island  and  the  northern  New  Netherlands  were  de 
clared  within  the  Connecticut  boundaries.  Thereupon  the  indepen 
dent  towns  on  Long  Island  fell  off,  and  Connecticut  men  appeared 
not  only  in  Westchester,  but  among  the  Dutch  towns  of  Long  Island, 
which  they  renamed,  and  proclaimed  to  be  under  English  jurisdiction. 
Stuyvesant,  with  an  empty  treasury  and  a  breaking  province,  was 
helpless  and  desperate,  and  a  new  turn  of  affairs  only  made  matters 
worse.  One  John  Scott,  an  adventurer  well  known  in  that  region, 
came  out  with  a  commission,  in  which  Maverick  and  Baxter  were 
joined,  from  the  committee  on  trade  and  plantations.  He  obtained 
aid  from  Connecticut,  and  then  announced  that  all  Long  Island  had 
been  granted  to  the  Duke  of  York.  The  English  then  united  in 
support  of  the  new  dispensation ;  Scott  was  declared  president,  and, 
making  himself  master  of.  the  Dutch  towns,  threatened  to  invade 
New  Amsterdam.  This  roused  Stuyvesant  to  a  last  despairing  effort. 
He  raised  money  and  men,  after  much  altercation,  renewed  the  de 
fences,  and  defied  Scott,  who  was  brought  to  terms,  and  agreed  to 
leave  the  Dutch  towns  unmolested  for  a  year.  The  lull  was  deceitful. 
The  commissioners  of  the  King  of  England — Nicolls,  Carr,  Cartwright, 
and  Maverick — soon  arrived  at  Boston  to  regulate  New  England  and 
conquer  the  Dutch.  They  could  get  no  troops  from  Massa 
chusetts,  but  they  did  from  Connecticut;  and  in  August,  1664, 
while  the  Director  was  at  Fort  Orange,  appeared  off  the  Narrows, 
and,  before  he  could  return,  the  whole  squadron  was  assembled. 
Stuyvesant  strove  to  prepare  for  an  energetic  defence;  but  the  citi 
zens  were  panic-stricken,  and  the  soldiers  mutinous ;  so  that  the  favor 
able  offers  of  Nicolls  were  only  too  readily  listened  to.  Stuyvesant 
raged  and  swore,  and  wished  to  make  a  desperate  fight  in  his  inde 
fensible  and  terrified  town ;  but  his  struggle  was  vain.  Nicolls  guar 
anteed  protection  of  life  and  property,  religious  liberty,  freedom  of 


296  HISTORY  OF  THE 

trade  and  emigration,  and  representative  government.  Stuyvesant 
was  forced  to  ratify  the  treaty  of  surrender,  and  on  the  8th  of  Sep 
tember  marched  out  at  the  head  of  his  soldiers  and  embarked  them 
for  Holland,  and  New  Amsterdam  became  New  York;  while  Fort 
Orange  was  taken  by  Cartwright  and  christened  Albany.  Carr  re 
duced  Fort  Casimir  and  the  South  river  settlements,  and  the  Dutch 
power  in  America  perished. 

The  English  carefully  observed  the  terms  of  the  surrender,  and 
everything  proceeded  quietly  and  with  little  apparent  change,  ex 
cept  in  the  new  English  names.  Nicolls  was  Governor,  with  an  Eng 
lish  secretary  and  English  councillors  to  assist  him  ;  but  the  former 
Dutch  officers  were  consulted,  and  nothing  was  done  to  wound  the 
feelings  of  the  people.  An  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  Duke  was  exact 
ed,  and  taken  without  much  opposition.  Nicolls's  first  trouble  came 
from  his  grants  in  New  Jersey,  which  were  interfered  with  by 
the  Duke's  gift  to  Carteret  and  Berkeley.  He  was  compelled 
to  admit  the  new-comers,  but  at  the  same  time  wrote  complainingly 
to  the  Duke,  and  thus  began  the  long  and  discreditable  attempt  to 
recover  what  had  once  been  given  away.  There  were  differences, 
too,  with  Connecticut,  which  were  finally  amicably  settled.  New  York 
obtained  the  whole  of  Long  Island;  and  Connecticut  secured  the 
main-land  west  of  the  Connecticut  River,  by  a  boundary  which  was 
defined  very  shrewdly  in  the  Connecticut  interest,  was  never  con 
firmed,  and  became  the  source  of  future  controversy.  A  code  known 
as  the  Duke's  laws  was  drawn  up,  and  promulgated  at  first  on  Long 
Island,  where  there  was  more  interest  in  matters  of  government,  and 
afterward  in  New  York.  This  code,  with  little  regard  for  popular 
representation,  provided  for  a  court  of  assizes  annually  at  New  York, 
for  courts  of  sessions  and  county  officers,  and  for  town  overseers. 
Land  grants  were  to  be  confirmed,  trade  was  regulated,  crimes  and 
penalties  were  defined,  and  religious  liberty  assured.  There  was  some 
grumbling  over  English  names  in  the  municipal  government  of  New 
York,  but  the  offices  were  fairly  distributed  between  the  two  races. 
The  war  in  Europe  did  not  disturb  the  peace,  but  Nicolls  took  every 
precaution  against  the  French,  who  contented  themselves  with  first 
fighting  and  then  making  peace  with  the  Mohawks — an  event  of  ill 
omen  to  the  English.  The  only  political  agitation  was  on  Long  Isl 
and,  among  the  English,  in  regard  to  quit-rents,  fees,  and  land 
grants,  but  Nicolls,  with  quiet  firmness,  prevailed.  The  news 
of  peace,  which  restored  an  interrupted  commerce,  was  hailed  with 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  297 

delight ;  and  soon  after  Nicolls,  wise,  just,  and  an  excellent  Governor, 
left  the  province,  regretted  by  all. 

Under  his  successor,  Francis  Lovelace,  matters  went  on  quietly  and 
in  the  same  way.  English  energy  and  activity  began  to  make  them 
selves  felt  in  New  York ;  but  the  easy  Dutch  customs  still  prevailed, 
and  there  was  peace  and  comfort  everywhere,  except  on  Long  Island, 
where  there  were  again  disturbances  on  account  of  taxes.  All  this 
quiet,  however,  was  threatened  and  finally  broken  up  by  the  second 
war  between  Holland  and  England.  Lovelace  was  ordered  to  make 
every  preparation,  and  did  what  was  in  his  power;  but  as  nothing 
happened,  the  old  feeling  of  security  returned,  and  while  Lovelace  was 
absent  from  the  city  the  dreaded  Dutch  fleet  appeared.  The  English 
were  now  as  helpless  as  their  predecessors,  with  rotten  fortifications, 
a  feeble  garrison,  and  a  hostile  population.  Manning,  the  lieutenant 
of  Lovelace,  tried  to  protract  negotiation ;  but  the  Dutch  grew  impa 
tient,  opened  fire  on  the  fort,  which  was  returned,  landed  soldiers,  and 
the  town  capitulated.  The  people  of  English  blood  quietly  sub 
mitted,  the  Dutch  colonists  rejoiced,  and  again  there  was  little 
change  except  in  names.  Anthony  Colve  was  appointed  Governor, 
and  took  active  measures  to  prepare  against  an  invasion  from  New 
England,  which  was  both  alarmed  and  enraged  by  the  Dutch  triumph. 
Just  as  Colve,  however,  had  brought  all  the  province  under  Dutch 
authority,  the  treaty  of  Westminster  ceded  New  Netherlands  to  the 
dominions  of  England.  The  Dutch  colonists  were  furious,  but  there 
was  nothing  to  be  done.  English  frigates  appeared,  and  Colve  turned 
over  the  province  to  Sir  Edmund  Andros;  it  seemed  as  if  the  gov 
ernment  of  Nicolls  and  Lovelace  had  hardly  been  disturbed, 
and  the  Dutch  power,  after  this  last  returning  gleam,  finally 
disappeared  from  America. 

With  the  arrival  of  Andros,  English  energy  and  activity,  which  were 
interrupted  by  the  war,  came  in  again  on  all  sides,  and  began  to  devel 
op  rapidly  the  wonderful  resources  of  the  province,  which,  under  the 
long  years  of  Dutch  supremacy,  had  gathered  only  some  seven  thousand 
inhabitants  against  the  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  of  their  New  Eng 
land  neighbors.  The  rule  of  Andros,  although  despotic,  was,  within  the 
bounds  of  his  province,  on  the  whole,  wise  and  strong.  He  quarrelled 
with  the  people  about  the  arbitrary  customs  duties  imposed  by  the 
Dutch ;  but  he  also  began  and  carried  on  the  sound  and  essential  pol 
icy  of  detaching  the  Five  Nations  from  the  French  and  fastening  them 
to  the  English  interests.  He  strove  in  every  way  to  thwart  and  check 


298  HISTORY  OF  THE 

the  French  power  at  the  north,  and  endeavored  to  develop  Albany, 
and  secure  for  the  town  the  monopoly  of  the  great  Indian  trade,  of 
which  it  was  the  natural  centre.  His  foreign  contrasted  strongly  with 
his  domestic  policy.  He  felt  the  insignificance  of  his  place,  and  to  him 
more  than  to  an}7  one  was  due  the  scheme,  finally  adopted  when  James 
reached  the  throne,  of  uniting  under  one  government  all  the  northern 
colonies,  and  he  even  endeavored  to  give  effect  to  this  policy  during 
his  own  administration.  He  claimed  all  the  western  portion  of  Con 
necticut  ;  but  when  he  landed  at  Saybrook  to  enforce  his  demands  he 
was  driven  off  by  a  troop  of  New  England  soldiers,  and  was  hardly 
permitted  to  read  his  patent.  In  Maine  he  established  a  fort  at  Pema- 
quid,  as  a  sign  of  his  master's  ownership ;  but  it  was  an  expensive  and 
unprofitable  experiment.  His  chief  effort  was  in  New  Jersey,  where 
he  carried  on  an  aggressive  and  violent  contest  to  regain  the  province. 
He  strove  to  raise  duties,  seized  ships  and  goods,  arrested  Fenwick 
several  times,  and  followed  this  up  by  arresting  Carteret  and  trying 
him  in  New  York,  refusing  to  free  him,  even  after  the  jury  had  ac 
quitted  him.  This  quarrel  in  East  New  Jersey,  although  it  did 
not  displease  the  Duke  of  York,  aroused  a  hostility  in  Eng 
land  before  which  Andros  had  to  succumb,  and  he  was  recalled. 

Anthony  Brockholst  succeeded  him,  and  after  a  brief  term,  distin 
guished  only  by  a  violent  quarrel  with  the  merchants  about  duties, 
which  resulted  in  the  arrest  of  Dyre,  the  collector  of  customs, 
and  by  a  last  attempt  to  domineer  over  East  Jersey,  he  was 
in  turn  succeeded  by  Colonel  Thomas  Dongan,  who  brought  with 
him  a  charter  of  liberties,  which  gave  New  York  her  first  taste  of 
representative  government,  and  which  was  as  liberal  as  most  of  the 
colonial  charters.     It  provided  for  a  general  Assembly  of  eighteen, 
who,  with  the  Governor  and  Council,  were  to  constitute  the  gov 
ernment  of  the  colony.     The  Duke  was  to  grant  lands  and  estab 
lish  custom  -  houses ;   but  no  tax  was  to  be  levied  without  the  as 
sent  of  the  Assembly.     Trial  by  jury  was  assured,  together  with  relig 
ious  toleration ;  but  no  act  was  to  become  law  without  the  assent  of 
the  Duke,  and  as  he  gave  his  assent  to  no  act,  and  revoked  the 
charter  as  soon  as  he  came  to  the  throne,  the  gleam  of  popu 
lar  government  was  short-lived.    Dongan  was  sent  out  largely  because 
he  was  a  Roman  Catholic,  and  was  therefore  fitted  to  forward  the  re 
ligious  schemes  of  James ;  but,  unfortunately,  the  principal  events  of 
his  administration  were  the  struggles  to  maintain  the  Iroquois  alliance, 
and  ward  off  both  the  armed  assaults  of  the  French  upon  the  Five  Na- 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  299 

tions,  and  their  scarcely  less  dangerous  efforts  to  draw  them  away  by 
means  of  intriguing,  proselyting  Jesuits.  James  in  many  ways  did 
everything  to  hamper  Dongan,  and  help  the  French,  on  account  of  his 
bigoted  love  of  every  Catholic ;  but  the  Governor  remained  true  to 
the  interests  of  the  province.  He  persisted  in  the  policy  of  Andros, 
supported  the  Iroquois  with  success,  and  did  all  in  his  power  to  check 
the  French.  He  continued,  too,  like  Andros,  to  urge  the  annexation 
of  Connecticut,  although  he  settled  the  much-disputed  boundary  with 
that  colony.  He  also  advocated  the  absorption  of  Pennsylvania  and 
New  Jersey,  but  he  effected  nothing ;  and  while  incurring  the  dis 
pleasure  of  his  master  by  his  wise  Indian  policy,  he  gave  great  vitality 
to  the  dread  of  Papists,  always  strong  among  a  people  who  had  known 
French  massacres  and  feared  Jesuit  intrigues.  There  was  therefore 
but  little  regret  when  he  was  removed,  although  the  manner  in 
which  it  was  done  by  annexing  New  York  to  New  England 
under  the  rule  of  Andros  was  far  from  popular. 

Andros  was,  nevertheless,  well  received  in  New  York  when  he  re 
turned  there  with  enlarged  powers.  He  visited  the  Iroquois,  and 
cemented  their  alliance,  and  then  departed,  leaving  the  now  absolute 
government  in  the  hands  of  the  appointed  Council  and  of  Francis 
Nicholson,  the  Lieutenant-governor.  This  government,  in  appear 
ance  so  fairly  begun,  was  of  short  duration.  In  February  it  was 
known  that  William  had  landed  in  England,  in  April  that  the  Bos- 
tonians  had  cast  Andros  into  prison.  Everything  was  prepared  for 
an  outbreak  in  New  York.  The  strong  popular  dread  of  the  Papists, 
inflamed  by  Dongan's  open  Catholicism  and  Nicholson's  doubtful 
Protestantism,  the  Dutch  admiration  for  the  Prince  of  Orange,  and 
the  general  hatred  of  Stuart  government,  common  to  all  the  colonies, 
furnished  the  elements  for  insurrection.  Nicholson  and  his  Council 
seem  to  have  been  paralyzed.  They  renewed  the  fortifications,  and,  call 
ing  together  the  militia,  gave  the  alarm  of  French  invasion,  but  would 
not  proclaim  William ;  and  soon  after,  Nicholson  laid  down  his  gov 
ernment,  and  prepared  to  sail.  The  power,  dropped  in  this  nerveless 
way,  was  seized,  of  course,  by  the  men  in  arms,  the  militia,  under  the 
lead  of  Jacob  Leisler,  a  merchant,  and  captain  of  a  train-band.  An 
agreement  was  signed,  the  fort  taken,  the  Prince  of  Orange  proclaim 
ed  ;  and  Leisler,  who  was  at  the  head  of  the  government,  got  the  ben 
efit  of  the  confirmation  of  all  Protestant  officers,  which  came  from 
William  to  Nicholson.  The  remnant  of  the  Council  was  opposed  to 
Leisler,  who  proceeded  to  put  down  all  opposition  with  a  high  hand. 


300  HISTORY  OF  THE 

He  was  arbitrary,  inexperienced,  and  hot-headed.  He  crushed  out  his 
enemies,  and  managed  the  affairs  of  the  province  despotically,  taking 
to  himself  all  authority  and  instructions  only  from  England.  In  outside 
matters  he  appeared  to  better  advantage.  War  had  been  declared  with 
France,  and  Frontenac,  the  ablest  and  most  daring  of  the  French  gov 
ernors,  was  in  command  in  Canada.  In  the  dead  of  winter  his  war 
parties  swooped  down  upon  Schenectady,  fired  the  village,  and 
slaughtered  the  inhabitants.  The  whole  frontier  was  in  danger, 
and  a  merciless  Indian  war  had  come.  Leisler  called  upon  the  other 
colonies  to  send  representatives  to  New  York ;  and  in  response  seven 
delegates  appeared,  chiefly  from  New  England.  An  expedition  was  ar 
ranged  and  quotas  agreed  upon ;  but  the  expedition  was  a  failure,  al 
though  Leisler's  military  administration  was  vigorous  and  spirited.  He 
not  only  helped  the  expedition,  but  rebuilt  the  fort,  and  sent  out  priva 
teers  to  attack  French  cruisers.  Still  harsher  vigor  in  the  province  did 
not  increase  his  popularity,  and  embittered  his  enemies,  whose  opportu 
nity  was  now  at  hand.  Major  Richard  Ingoldsby  arrived  from 
England  with  a  company  of  grenadiers  and  demanded  the  sur 
render  of  the  fort ;  which,  as  he  had  no  commission,  Leisler  refused. 
Firing  ensued  on  both  sides ;  but  the  unlucky  Leisler  was  shooting  at 
royal  troops.  At  last  Sloughter,  a  worthless  fellow,  appointed  Govern 
or  more  than  a  year  before,  reached  New  York,  and  Leisler  was  obliged 
to  surrender;  when  he  and  his  friends  were  at  once  thrown  into 
prison,  tried  for  murder  and  treason,  found  guilty,  and  sentenced  to 
death.  Sloughter  reprieved  the  prisoners  until  the  King's  pleasure 
could  be  known,  and  then,  as  he  was  ordered,  called  an  Assembly, 
which,  in  the  excitement  of  the  times,  was  secured  by  the  party  of 
the  old  councillors — Leisler's  bitter  enemies.  With  this  influence, 
and  backed  by  petitions,  they  persuaded  Sloughter,  during  a  drink 
ing  bout,  to  sign  Leisler's  death-warrant,  and  he,  together  with  his 
son-in-law  and  chief -abettor,  Milborne,  were  immediately  executed. 
Perhaps  Leisler  was  technically  guilty.  He  was  a  man  thrown  to  the 
surface,  and  strong  enough  to  grasp  power  in  a  time  of  popular  con 
vulsion,  ill  led,  and  based  on  no  definite  principles,  and  he  had  cer 
tainly  acted  illegally  and  arbitrarily.  But  his  death  was  a  revengeful 
political  murder.  It  was  as  foolish  as  it  was  cruel  and  unnecessary, 
it  created  two  bitter  parties  in  New  York,  and  left  a  lasting  mark  on 
her  provincial  histoty.  The  insurrection  itself  was  a  pass 
ing  thing,  and  was  otherwise  without  result.  Sloughter  him 
self  died  soon  after,  when  Ingoldsby  held  power  for  a  short  time, 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  301 

and  then  Benjamin  Fletcher  came  out  as  Governor,  with  a  royal  com 
mission. 

He  brought  instructions  involving  no  change  from  the  policy  of 
James,  except  in  the  recognition  of  the  Assembly.  The  Governor 
was  to  have  a  salary  from  the  revenue,  the  Council  was  to  be  appoint 
ed,  all  laws  approved,  and  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  was  to  be  in 
troduced.  He  was  also  ordered  to  take  command  of  the  Connecticut 
militia,  which  involved  a  quarrel  with  Governor  Phips  of  Massachusetts, 
who  had  received  a  similar  order,  and  took  Fletcher  to  Hartford,  where 
he  found  the  general  court  in  session.  Tradition  says  that  the  militia 
were  drawn  up  to  receive  him,  and  that,  when  he  attempted  to  read- 
his  commission,  the  drums  were  beaten,  and  the  voice  of  the  reader 
drowned.  It  is  certain  that  the  resistance  in  Connecticut  was  so  de 
termined  and  formidable  that  Fletcher  retired  to  New  York  humili 
ated  and  baffled.  He  fared  better  in  the  war  with  the  French,  who 

were  again  on  the  frontier.     They  were  driven  off  by  Peter 

Schuyler,  after  destroying  the  Mohawk  villages,  and  the  rest  of 
Frontenac's  campaign  came  to  nothing.  This  was  the  only  creditable 
event  of  Fletcher's  administration.  He  was  one  of  the  leavings  of  the 
Stuart  period,  as  worthless  a  man  as  Sloughter,  but  not  without  ability, 
and  thoroughly  corrupt.  He  was  in  league  with  the  pirates  who  in 
fested  the  coast,  openly  sold  them  licenses,  and  is  even  said  to  have 
shared  their  spoils ;  while  at  the  same  time  he  plundered  the  revenue, 
and  connived  at  smuggling  and  every  sort  of  illicit  trade.  The  prov 
ince  was  torn  with  the  dissensions  of  the  Leislerian  and  anti-Leislerian 
factions ;  and,  instead  of  trying  to  allay  them,  Fletcher  devoted  himself 

to  intriguing  and  quarrelling  with  his  Assemblies  for  money. 

At  last  his  evil  doing  led  to  his  recall,  and  the  Earl  of  Bello- 
mont  came  out  as  his  successor. 

The  old  policy  of  consolidation  had  been  lately  revived,  and  Bel- 
lomont  received  the  government  not  only  of  New  York,  but  of 
Massachusetts  and  New  Hampshire.  He  came  with  excellent  inten 
tions,  purposing  to  cure  the  evils  of  Fletcher's  rule,  stop  frauds,  and 
provide  for  an  honest  collection  of  the  revenue ;  and,  above  all,  sup 
press  piracy.  In  these  objects  he  succeeded  in  large  measure.  He 
had  been  chiefly  instrumental  in  sending  out  Kidd  to  break  up  piracy, 
and  was  personally  interested  in  bringing  him  to  justice,  now  that  he 
had  become  the  terror  of  the  seas.  This  he  accomplished,  and  he 
gave  a  severe  check  to  piracy  everywhere.  He  brought  the  govern 
ment  of  New  York  back  to  order  and  decency,  and  obtained  from  the 


302  HISTORY  OF  THE 

Assembly  an  act  of  indemnity  for  Leisler,  whose  body,  with  that  of 
Milborne's,  he  caused  to  be  taken  up  and  buried  with  public  observ 
ance.     His  efforts  to  remedy  the  injustice  of  his  predecessors  gave 
him  the  full  support  and  confidence  of  the  popular  party,  so 
that  his  death,  which  occurred  three  years  after  his  arrival,  was 
much  regretted. 

The  old  party  of  the  Council,  headed  by  Bayard  and  Livingston, 
took  advantage  of  the  opportunity  thus  afforded,  and  made  a  desper 
ate  attempt  to  regain  power ;  but  were  thwarted  by  Nanfan,  the  Lieu 
tenant-governor,  and  the  popular  party.  Livingston,  the  collector,  was 
declared  a  defaulter,  and  his  property  confiscated ;  while  Bayard,  for 
complaining  of  Nanfan,  was  tried  for  disturbing  the  peace,  found 
guilty,  and  would  have  been  punished  had  it  not  been  for  the 
arrival  of  the  new  Governor  in  the  person  of  Lord  Cornbury, 
a  wretched  profligate  and  bankrupt  spendthrift,  for  whom  his  royal 
kinswoman  made  provision  by  thrusting  him  into  a  colonial  govern 
ment.  His  first  idea  was  to  get  rich,  and  he  opened  his  adminis 
tration  by  stealing  some  fifteen  hundred  pounds  which  the  Assembly 
had  voted  for  fortifications ;  a  freak  which  led  to  the  appointment  of 
a  treasurer  by  the  Assembly  to  stop  further  thefts — a  course  of  action 
very  disgusting  to  the  Governor.  He  sought  the  support  of  the  old 
anti-Leislerian  faction,  thus  alienating  the  majority  of  the  people ;  and 
finally  lost  the  support  of  all  parties  by  his  misconduct.  He  was  as 
zealous  in  religion  as  in  vice,  and  endeavored  to  enforce  the  worship 
of  the  Church  of  England  by  attacking  all  dissenting  sects,  and  espe 
cially  the  Presbyterians,  whose  churches,  parsonages,  and  glebes  he 
seized  and  gave  to  the  Established  Church.  He  incurred  the  bitter 
enmity  in  this  way  of  the  mass  of  the  people,  roused  an  enduring 
hatred  of  the  English  Church,  and  established  a  controversy  and  a 
grievance  which  were  only  appeased  by  the  Revolution.  While  he 
thus  gained  general  hatred,  he  also  won  universal  contempt  by  his 
debaucheries  and  excesses,  by  his  debts,  and  by  his  habit  of  dress 
ing  as  a  woman.  He  was  plunged  in  one  long  quarrel  with  his  As 
semblies,  both  in  New  York  and  New  Jersey,  plotted  with  Dudley, 
of  Massachusetts,  to  destroy  the  free  -  charter  governments  of  Con 
necticut  and  Rhode  Island,  and  at  last  excited  such  loud  and 
strenuous  opposition  that  he  was  recalled,  but  could  not  return 
to  England  until  his  accession  to  the  Earldom  of  Clarendon  released 
him  from  prison,  into  which  he  had  been  thrown  for  debt. 

His  immediate  and  warmly  welcomed  successor,  Lord  Lovelace,  died 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  303 

soon  after  his  accession,  and  the  government  fell  into  the  hands  of  In- 
1709     £°^sl>y»  as  Lieutenant-governor,  the  friend  of  Sloughter  and 
Fletcher,  and  the  tool  of  Cornbury.    He  made  a  wretched  Gov 
ernor,  and  was  soon  removed,  the  only  event  of  his  administration  be 
ing  the  first  issue  of  bills  of  credit  in  aid  of  an  invasion  of  Canada, 
which  failed  miserably  through  the  miscarriage  of  the  English  fleet. 
The  long,  protracted  war  between  France  and  England,  and  the  contin 
ual  attacks  from  the  north,  excited  in  the  colonists  an  eager  desire  to 
conquer  Canada,  and  several  futile  attempts  were  made.    Peter  Schuy- 
ler  took  five  Iroquois  chiefs  to  England  to  raise  an  interest  in  the  mat 
ter,  and  by  the  greatest  efforts  the  combined  English  forces  suc 
ceeded  in  capturing  Port  Royal  and  getting  possession  of  Nova 
Scotia.    Before  this,  however,  Robert  Hunter,  a  soldier  and  courtier,  and 
the  friend  of  Swift  and  Addison,  came  out  as  Governor.    He  surround 
ed  himself  with  the  aristocratic  party  of  the  Council,  which  thus  came 
again  to  power,  and  at  once  was  in  conflict  with  his  Assembly  on  the 
question  of  salaries  and  supplies ;  for  the  representatives,  with  Corn- 
bury  in  their  minds,  were  naturally  suspicious,  and  in  no  mood  to  turn 
over  the  public  funds  to  any  Governor.     They  all  managed,  however, 
to  unite  in  support  of  the  war  and  a  grand  expedition  against  Canada. 
New  York  issued  ten  thousand  pounds  in  bills  of  credit ;  there  was  a 
congress  of  Governors,  and  the  colonies  raised  four  thousand 
men  to  march  under  the  command  of  Nicholson  against  Mont 
real  ;  but  all  the  great  hopes  raised  by  these  preparations  came  to 
nothing.    The  British  fleet  and  forces,  under  the  command  of  Admiral 
Walker  and  General  Hill,  miscarried  stupidly  and  miserably  in  the  St. 
Lawrence,  and  withdrew,  and  Nicholson  was  thereby  forced  to  retreat. 
This  disastrous  result  caused  great  depression  and  fear  at  New  York, 
which  found  expression  in  the  discovery  of  a  supposed  "  negro  plot," 
and  the  consequent  execution  of  nineteen  wretched  blacks. 
The  peace  of  Utrecht  relieved  the  colony  from  war,  but  it 
found  itself  encumbered  with  debt,  and  in  no  very  good  humor  with 
the  Governor,  who  persisted  in  fighting  for  salaries  and  revenue.     He 
also  erected  a  court  of  chancery,  with  himself  as  chancellor — a  meas 
ure  which  produced  a  violent  and  lasting  opposition.     Hunter,  how 
ever,  was  sustained  in  England,  and  the  court  of  chancery  remained, 
and  became  a  standing  grievance ;  but  after  this  conflict  matters  set 
tled  down,  and  the  peaceful  Walpole  era  began.     Hunter  got 
the  npperhand  in  the  Assembly,  and  ruled  wisely  and  judicious 
ly  ;  so  that  he  was  able,  when  he  left  the  province,  to  justly  congrat- 


304  HISTORY  OF  THE 

ulate  the  Assembly  on  increased  prosperity,  and  upon  the  improved 
condition  of  public  affairs. 

His  successor  was  William  Burnet,  the  son  of  the  bishop,  an  active, 
imperious,  energetic  man,  with  high  notions  of  his  office,  and  a 
determination  to  carry  out  his  schemes  at  all  costs.     He  re 
solved  on  an  active  policy  against  France,  and  obtained  the  passage 
of  an  act  forbidding  all  trade  with  Canada ;  thus  arousing  a  power 
ful  and  interested  opposition  on  account  of  the  interference  with  a 
profitable  trade,  which  went  on  despite  the  law.     This  resistance  was 
strengthened  by  a  fresh  opposition  to  the  unpopular  court  of  chancery ; 
and  Burnet,  hot-tempered  and  the  reverse  of  conciliatory,  plunged 
along  from  one  quarrel  to  another — from  courts  to  salaries  and  fees 
and  supplies — until,  despite  his  success  in  cementing  and  extending  the 
Indian  alliances,  and  establishing  a  trading  post  at  Oswego,  he 
found  himself  in  a  hopeless  minority  in  the  Assembly,  and  was 
transferred  to  Massachusetts,  where  still  worse  contests  awaited  him. 
He  was  succeeded  in  the  following  year  by  John  Montgomerie,  who 
died  after  a  brief  and  uneventful  rule  of  three  years.     For  a 
few  months  Rip  Van  Dam,  the  president  of  the  Council,  was  at 
the  head  of  affairs,  and  then  Colonel  Cosby  came  out  from  England 
as  Governor.     Cosby  was  a  money -getter,  like  most  of  the 
royal  Governors ;  and,  as  he  had  been  appointed  nearly  a  year 
before  his  arrival,  he  demanded  that  Van  Dam,  who  had  held  sway  in 
the  interval,  should  divide  with  him  his  salary  and  perquisites.     Van 
Dam  naturally  declining,  there  was  a  great  equity  suit,  and  the  whole 
matter  drifted  into  politics,  Van  Dam  being  supported  on  general  prin 
ciples  by  the  popular,  and  Cosby  by  the  aristocratic  party,  so  that  the 
struggle  soon  became  bitter  and  violent.    This  contest  formed  the  prin 
cipal  feature  of  Cosby's  administration ;  and  although  he  was  unpop 
ular,  and  had  the  usual  wrangles  with  the  Assembly  about  money,  and 
interference  with  land  grants  and  titles,  nothing  else  happened  of  im 
portance.     Out  of  this  controversy,  however,  between  Van  Dam  and 
the  Governor  grew  another  suit,  which  was  of  abiding  interest.    Peter 
Zenger  published  the  New  York  Weekly  Journal ;  and  as  he  used  it  in 
behalf  of  the  opposition,  his  paper  was  ordered  to  be  burned,  and  he 
was  thrown  into  prison  and  brought  to  trial  for  libel.     He  was  de 
fended  by  Andrew  Hamilton,  of  Pennsylvania — born  in  England,  and 
there  bred  to  the  bar — who  was  the  first  lawyer  to  win  great  profes 
sional  fame  in  America.    In  Zenger's  case,  he  admitted  the  publishing 
and  printing,  but  took  the  ground  that  the  truth  was  a  justification, 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  305 

and  that  the  words  were  neither  false,  scandalous,  nor  seditious ;  and 
after  listening  to  his  masterly  speech,  the  jury  returned  a  verdict  of 
not  guilty.  Hamilton  was  presented  with  the  freedom  of  the  city  in 
a  gold  box,  and  departed  amid  the  firing  of  salutes  in  his  hon 
or.  Soon  after  this  victory  of  the  popular  party  Cosby  died, 
and  the  contest  assumed  a  new  form.  Van  Dam  claimed  the  place 
of  acting-Governor  as  the  oldest  member  of  the  Council ;  but  that 
body  held  that  he  had  been  removed,  and  declared  George  Clarke  to 
be  the  oldest  member,  and  Lieutenant-governor.  Van  Dam  had  the 
popular  support ;  Clarke,  who  was  disliked  as  the  lineal  successor  of 
Cosby's  policy,  had  that  of  the  Council  and  the  aristocracy.  Both  men 
assumed  to  hold  the  office  and  to  act ;  and  while  Clarke  seized  the  fort, 
the  populace  rallied  about  Van  Dam.  Feeling  began  to  run  very  high, 
and  it  looked  as  if  there  would  be  a  resort  to  arms ;  but  a  royal  com 
mission  arrived  confirming  Clarke  in  his  office,  and  quiet  was  restored. 
Clarke,  although  a  native  of  England,  had  been  long  in  the  province, 
and  was  a  shrewd  and  successful  local  politician  ;  so  that  for  seven  years 
he  contrived  to  prevent  his  being  superseded  by  the  arrival  of  a  Gov 
ernor,  and  during  that  time,  despite  a  never-dying  controversy  with  the 
Assembly,  he  managed  to  rule  peacefully  by  yielding  to  the  popular 
party  on  all  important  points,  and  confining  himself  to  remonstrances. 
He  farther  mitigated  the  opposition  to  his  administration  by  offers  of 
office  to  the  popular  leaders,  thus  dividing  and  distracting  them.  The 
only  great  event  of  his  term  was  the  dark  misfortune  of  the  negro 
plot,  with  its  resulting  panic  and  judicial  slaughter.  This  mat 
ter  is  discussed  elsewhere ;  but  it  may  be  said  here  that  the 
government  generally,  including  De  Lancey,  the  chief- justice,  on  one 
side,  and  Clarke  on  the  other,  fell  in  readily  with  the  popular  terror, 
and  supported  the  steps  taken  for  the  punishment  of  the  supposed 
criminals. 

Two  years  after  this  event  a  new  Governor  was  appointed — Admi 
ral  Clinton,  the  second  son  of  the  Earl  of  Lincoln — who  fell 
into  the  hands  of  De  Lancey,  the  leader  of  the  popular  party, 
and  was  by  him  persuaded  to  confirm  the  concessions  of  Clarke,  from 
whom  the  Assembly  had  extorted  the  right  to  fix  the  Governor's  sal 
ary  annually,  a  claim  which  had  been  successfully  denied  by  Hunter, 
and  strenuously  resisted  by  his  successors,  until  Clarke  had  given  way. 
Not  content  witfr  their  triumph  on  this  point,  De  Lancey  induced  the 
Governor  to  assent  to  an  appropriation  bill,  which  named  the  officers 
to  whom  salaries  were  to  be  paid,  thus  practically  putting  the  control 

20 


306  HISTORY  OF  THE 

of  appointments  in  the  hands  of  the  Assembly.     At  last  Clinton  was 
awakened  to  the  effects  of  his  acts,  and  the  rest  of  his  term  of  of 
fice  was  one  prolonged  struggle  to  regain  lost  ground,  and  re-establish 
his  enfeebled  prerogatives.     He  quarrelled  with  De  Lancey,  and  se 
lected  Cadwallader  Golden  as  his  chief  adviser,  which  merely  added 
the  hostility  of  the  Council  to  that  of  the  Assembly.    He  complained 
bitterly  to  the  ministers ;  but  even  there  he  found  no  sympathy,  and 
was  obliged  to  convey  to  De  Lancey,  after  much  delay,  the  commis 
sion  of  Lieutenant-governor.     The  struggle  began  just  as  war  with 
France  was  declared,  and  the  Assembly  proved  thoroughly  intracta 
ble,  and  would  not  make  provision  for  defence.     They  finally  gave 
three  thousand  pounds  for  the  Louisburg  expedition,  but  raised 
no  men,  and  had  no  farther  share  in  the  matter.     A  new  As 
sembly  proved  no  more  compliant,  and  although  they  voted  more 
money  for  the  Louisburg  expedition,  would  do  nothing  for  the  Gov 
ernor.     That  winter  the  Indians  were  on  the  frontier  and  destroyed 
Saratoga;  and  the  next  year  preparations  were  made  for  a  grand 
expedition   against  them,  which  failed  through  inaction  and  delay, 
while  the  Assembly  persisted  in  their  refusal  to  pay  the  troops,  both 
branches  uniting  against  the  Governor.    William  Johnson,  a  friend  of 
the  Governor  and  the  famous  agent  among  the  Indians,  failed  to  take 
Crown  Point;  the  troops  mutinied  and  began  to  disperse,  and  this 
miserable  condition  was  only  relieved  by  the  peace  of  Aix- 
la-Chapelle,  which,  however,  gave  full  opportunity  for  political 
warfare.     The  fight  was  made  on  the  well-worn  subject  of  permanent 
supply  for  the  government,  and  public  feeling  was  still  further  in 
flamed  by  attempts  at  impressment  and  by  the  overbearing  conduct  of 
British  officers.     A  dead-lock  ensued  which  lasted  nearly  two  years, 
when  the  Governor  gave  way,  and  signed  the  obnoxious  bills  making 
annual  appropriations ;  and  after  this  decisive  defeat,  matters  went  on 
more  smoothly  until  the  close  of  his  term.    He  was  succeeded 
by  Sir  Danvers  Osborn,  who  committed  suicide  a  few  days  af 
ter  his  arrival,  and  Clinton  was  thus  forced  to  turn  the  government 
over  to  his  enemy,  De  Lancey,  and  return  to  England  with  such  com 
fort  as  he  could  derive  from  the  handsome  fortune  which  he  had 
amassed  during  his  administration.     Under  De  Lancey  political  har 
mony  was  restored.     The  Assembly  amused  themselves  by  bringing 
heavy  charges  against  Clinton,  whom  they  accused  of  every  sort  of 
pecuniary  misdeed ;  but  they  did  not  gain  a  hearing  from  the  Board 
of  Trade.     Meanwhile  the  slowly  gathering  war  with  France  began, 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  30T 

and  De  Lancey  bad  the  honor  of  presiding  at  the  Albany  Congress, 
where  he  opposed  Franklin's  scheme  of  union,  which  provided 
for  a  general  government,  with  certain  specified  powers,  chief 
ly  relating  to  war,  Indians,  and  lands,  and  was  to  be  composed  of  a 
President  and  Council  appointed  by  the  Crown,  and  a  House  of  Rep 
resentatives  elected  by  the  colonial  Assemblies.     The  scheme  was  re 
jected  both  in  England  and  America,  by  ministry  and  people,  and  De 
Lancey's  opposition  had  plenty  of  support. 

In  the  following  year  the  war  became  general  and  active,  and  in  the 
great  conflict  which  followed  New  York  was  not  only  the  scene 

1  75  5* 

of  many  important  battles,  but  played  herself  an  important 
part.  At  the  outset  Braddock  was  to  march  against  Fort  Du  Quesne, 
Shirley,  with  American  troops,  against  the  French  at  Niagara,  and  the 
northern  forces  were  to  attack  Crown  Point.  The  story  of  Brad- 
dock's  expedition  and  his  crushing  defeat  belongs  to  the  history  of 
Virginia,  whose  soldiers  shared  in  the  losses  and  did  most  of  the  fight 
ing,  and  does  not  need  repetition  here.  To  the  northward  the  Eng 
lish  fared  better,  and  Nova  Scotia  was  reduced  by  Winslow.  Shirley 
gathered  troops  at  Oswego,  but  advanced  no  farther,  stopped,  appar 
ently,  by  rumors  of  superior  forces,  and  by  the  depression  and  dismay 
caused  by  Braddock's  defeat.  The  other  northern  expedition  was  put 
under  the  command  of  Johnson,  the  Indian  agent.  He  left  troops  at 
the  Hudson,  where  defences  were  thrown  up,  which  afterward  took  the 
name  of  Fort  Edward,  and  then  moved  northward  to  the  southern  ex 
tremity  of  Lake  George,  where  he  proceeded  to  intrench  himself  and 
make  a  base  for  his  movement  against  Crown  Point,  and  where  he 
heard  that  Baron  Dieskan,  with  an  army  of  French  and  Indians,  was 
rapidly  pushing  southward.  Dieskau's  first  plan  was  to  attack  Fort 
Edward;  but  he  was  deterred  by  the  Indian  dread  of  cannon,  and 
turned  against  Johnson.  He  surprised  and  routed  a  heavy  detach 
ment  sent  out  by  Johnson,  and  the  English  retreated  in  haste  to  Fort 
George.  A  quarter  of  an  hour  gave  the  English  time  to  recover 
themselves;  so  that  when  Dieskau  advanced  the  cannon  opened  fire, 
and  the  provincials,  gradually  gathering  their  senses  disordered  by  the 
sight  of  regular  troops,  began  to  pick  off  the  French  soldiers.  The 
battle  soon  raged  furiously.  Johnson  was  wounded,  but  his  place  was 
well  filled  by  Lyman,  of  Connecticut.  Repeated  charges  were  made 
by  the  French  ;  but  all  were  repulsed.  Dieskau  was  badly  wounded. 
The  provincials  rushed  over  the  works,  and  witli  clubbed  muskets 
beat  down  the  French  regulars,  while  the  Indians  and  Canadians  fled 


308  HISTORY  OF  THE 

in  disorder.  The  remnant  of  the  French  army,  surprised  on  their  re 
treat  by  the  garrison  of  Fort  Edward,  was  broken,  and  suffered  heav 
ily,  and  lost  their  baggage  and  ammunition.  Johnson,  however,  did 
not  follow  up  his  victory,  but  remained  at  Fort  George  and  strength 
ened  his  defences.  He  was  made  a  baronet,  and  received  five  thou 
sand  pounds  for  his  services,  while  the  brave  Lyman,whom  he  slighted 
in  his  despatches,  got  nothing.  This  success  did  something  to  relieve 
the  gloom  of  Braddock's  overthrow. 

The  same  autumn  a  new  Governor,  Admiral  Sir  Charles  Hardy, 
came  out  to  New  York ;  but  as  he  suffered  himself  to  be  guided  by 
De  Lancey,  matters  went  on  as  before.  The  winter  was  passed  in 
futile  scheming,  and  Shirley  was  removed  to  make  room  for 
Lord  Loudon,  who  summoned  the  colonial  Governors,  made 
great  plans,  scolded  the  colonies,  and  did  nothing.  The  English  gov 
ernment,  both  at  home  and  abroad,  seemed  to  be  in  its  dotage.  With 
the  French  it  was  very  different.  In  Montcalm  they  had  an  able,  en 
ergetic  leader,  and  a  bold  and  enterprising  general.  They  were  beat 
en  back  by  Bradstreet,  in  northern  New  York,  in  several  small  affairs ; 
but  while  Loudon  lingered  at  Albany,  Montcalm  came  down  with  all 
his  forces  and  captured  Oswego.  Loudon  thereupon  gave  up  his  Ca 
nadian  expeditions,  went  into  winter-quarters,  and  devoted  himself  to 
strengthening  Fort  William  Henry,  at  the  foot  of  Lake  George,  and 
Fort  Edward.  Soon  after  Hardy  departed  to  take  command 
of  a  fleet,  after  urging  upon  the  Assembly  the  necessity  of 
prosecuting  the  war,  and  left  the  government  once  more  with  De 
Lancev.  In  the  following  spring  Loudon  again  summoned  the  Gov 
ernors,  rated  the  colonies,  and  laid  great  schemes.  The  colonies  again 
responded,  men  were  furnished,  and  then  scattered  in  detached  bodies 
on  the  frontier,  while  Loudon,  with  the  other  British  officers,  gave  their 
attention  to  ail  attack  on  Louisburg;  and  as  they  were  making  up 
their  minds  that  this  attempt  would  be  hopeless,  Montcalm  came  down 
Lake  Champlain  and  Lake  George  with  all  his  forces,  and  captured 
Fort  William  Henry  and  two  thousand  men.  Many  of  the  prisoners 
were  butchered  by  the  Indians ;  and  during  the  siege  Webb,  at  Fort 
Edward,  with  four  thousand  soldiers,  was  deaf  to  the  entreaties  of  the 
provincials,  and  refused  to  move  to  the  relief  of  Fort  William  Hen 
ry.  This  utter  and  disgraceful  defeat  converted  the  campaign  into 
one  of  weak  defence ;  and  Loudon  took  occasion  to  quarrel  still  fur 
ther  with  the  colonies,  and  almost  produced  riots  by  his  methods  of 
distributing  and  quartering  soldiers. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  309 

This  reign  of  palsied  incompetence  had,  however,  now  reached  an 
end.  Pitt  had  control,  Loudon  was  removed,  the  spirit  of  the 
"Great  Commoner"  was  felt  everywhere,  and  men  and  money 
were  readily  furnished  for  another  campaign,  and  in  larger  measure 
than  ever  before.  In  June,  Boscawen  with  his  fleet,  and  Amherst  and 
Wolfe  with  the  land-forces,  took  Louisburg,  and  large  bodies  of  troops 
were  gathered  to  attack  the  French  at  every  point.  The  principal  ex 
pedition  was  directed  against  Ticonderoga,  consisted  of  ten  thousand 
provincials  and  seven  thousand  regulars,  fully  equipped,  and  was  com 
manded  by  General  Abercrombie  and  Lord  Howe.  This  large  army 
advanced  full  of  confidence;  but  in  the  first  skirmish  the  advance- 
guard  was  surprised,  and  Lord  Howe  killed.  A  desperate  attack  was 
then  made  upon  the  French  defences,  and  was  kept  up  until  two  thou 
sand  men  had  fallen,  when  a  retreat  was  ordered,  which  turned  into  a 
precipitate  flight.  The  dispirited  and  beaten  army  was  rallied  at  Fort 
William  Henry ;  but  nothing  was  done  to  retrieve  the  disaster  which 
had  befallen  them,  except  by  Colonel  Bradstreet,  who  induced  Aber 
crombie  to  let  him  have  three  thousand  men  and  some  cannon.  With 
this  force  he  reduced  Fort  Frontenac,  on  Lake  Ontario,  and  fortified 
Oswego,  restoring  safety  to  the  northern  frontier  of  New  York,  and 
holding  the  Indians  in  check.  Forbes,  meanwhile,  had  captured  Fort 
Du  Quesne,  and  thus,  despite  the  terrible  disaster  to  Abercrombie, 
the  balance  in  the  campaign  was  decidedly  in  favor  of  the  English. 
This  was  strongly  felt  in  America,  and,  incited  by  Pitt,  New  York 
and  the  other  northern  colonies  made  greater  efforts  than  ever  for 
the  coming  campaign,  which  was  destined  to  be  one  of  great  and 
unalloyed  triumphs.  Expeditions  were  planned  for  every  assailable 
point,  and,  fortunately,  all  succeeded.  Wolfe  captured  Que 
bec,  and,  by  one  of  the  great  battles  of  history,  decided  the 
fate  of  the  empire  of  France  in  the  New  World.  Stanwix  succeeded 
on  the  Ohio.  Prideaux,  who  had  been  sent  against  Fort  Niagara,  was 
killed  by  the  bursting  of  a  cohorn  early  in  the  siege  ;  and  the  com 
mand  then  devolved  upon  Sir  William  Johnson,  who  repulsed  a  re 
lieving  force  and  captured  the  fort,  thus  destroying  the  French  pow 
er  in  the  west.  The  hard-fought  path  to  Canada  by  Lake  Charnplain 
had  been  confided  to  Amherst,  who  started  in  July,  and  the  French 
fell  back  before  his  cautious  advance  from  Ticonderoga  to  Crown 
Point,  and  from  Crown  Point  to  Isle-aux-Noix,  where  they  prepared 
to  make  a  stand.  There  the  English  were  compelled  to  build  a  fleet, 
time  was  consumed,  and  Amherst  was  obliged  to  go  into  winter-quar- 


310  HISTORY  OF  THE 

ters,  where  he  occupied  himself  in  making  every  arrangement  for  the 
next  year. 

New  York,  greatly  exposed,  and  deeply  interested  in  the  result, 
continued  to  make  every  effort  in  her  power  for  the  support 
of  the  war;  but  in  July  she  had  the  misfortune  to  lose  her 
Lieutenant-governor,  James  Delancey,  who  had  ruled  wisely  and  well, 
and  shown  that  it  was  possible  for  a  Governor  and  Assembly  to  act 
unitedly  in  support  of  the  war,  and  raise  large  suras  of  money  by 
taxation.  He  was  succeeded  by  Cadwallader  Golden,  an  old  friend  of 
Clinton,  unpopular,  and  allied  to  the  Episcopalian  and  British  party, 
so  that  the  hostility  between  Governor  and  Assembly  which  had  slept 
so  long  was  at  once  awakened  in  full  vigor.  Meantime  the  war  went 
on  ;  the  arrangements  of  Amherst  were  complete ;  and  while  Havi- 
land  moved  up  the  line  of  Lake  Champlain,  the  main  body,  under  the 
commander -in -chief,  made  their  way  to  the  north  up  Lake  Ontario 
and  down  the  St.  Lawrence.  The  French  fell  back  everywhere,  sur 
rendering  their  posts;  and  the  armies  from  Quebec  and  Albany  met 
at  last  before  Montreal.  There  was  no  escape ;  Vaudreuil  capitulated, 
Canada  was  conquered,  and  the  French  empire  in  America  effaced. 
One  legacy  of  the  conquest  was  the  general  rising  of  the  Indian  tribes 
under  Pontiac ;  but  they  were  checked  at  Detroit  and  Niagara  by  the 
soldiers  of  Amherst,  and  beaten  by  Bouquet  in  Pennsylvania.  Hos 
tilities  still  went  on  until  1764  along  the  frontiers,  although  the  col 
onies  did  not  suffer  severely. 

Golden  was  superseded  by  General  Monckton,  who  went  away  to 
capture  Martinique,  and  soon  after  resigned  New  York  entire- 
1762."  ty» so  ^a^  he  interfered  but  little,  on  the  whole,  with  the  Lieu 
tenant-governor.  The  Assembly  continued  to  meet  the  requi 
sitions  of  England,  but  they  also  began  to  wrangle  with  Golden,  and 
were  much  occupied  with  the  contest  in  regard  to  the  territory  of  Ver 
mont.  Peace  was  hailed  with  delight ;  but  the  fair  prospects  which 
seemed  to  open  with  the  removal  of  the  dreaded  enemy  on  the  north 
were  soon  overclouded  by  the  development  of  the  ministerial  policy 
of  taxing  America.  The  first  step  was  the  enforcement  of  the  Navi 
gation  Act,  and  bore  very  hardly  on  New  York,  which  was  largely  en 
gaged  in  illicit  trade,  long  connived  at  by  England,  with  the  French 
and  Spanish  possessions ;  and  thus  the  way  was  prepared  for  the  uni 
versal  burst  of  indignation  which  greeted  the  news  of  the  Stamp  Act. 
Parties  had  always  been  bitter  in  New  York,  and  the  old  lines  were 
rapidly  drawn  on  the  new  question.  New  York  responded  readily 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  311 

to  the  invitation  of  Massachusetts  for  a  Congress ;  and  in  New  York 

that  Congress  was  held,  comprising  twenty -eight  delegates 

from  nine  colonies,  presided  over  by  Timothy  Rnggles,  and 

led  by  James  Otis,  of  Massachusetts,  and  Gadsden,  of  South  Carolina. 

Thus  in  New  York  the  resolutions  were  passed  denying  the  right  of 

taxation  without  representation,  and  demanding  a  repeal  of  the  Stamp 

Act ;  and  there,  by  that  Congress,  the  union  of  the  English  colonies 

in  America  was  founded. 


312  HISTORY  OF  THE 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

NEW  YORK    IN    1765. 

THE  American  colonies  were  not  only  governed  and  controlled 
by  the  English,  but  in  every  case,  except  New  York  and  Delaware, 
that  race  laid  the  foundations  of  the  future  State.  New  York  was 
established,  built  up,  and  ruled  for  fifty  years  by  people  of  a  different 
nationality,  although  of  a  kindred  origin ;  and  this  circumstance  had 
a  marked  effect  not  only  upon  the  history  of  the  colony,  but  upon 
the  social  and  political  system  which  was  gradually  developed  on  the 
banks  of  the  Hudson. 

At  the  time  of  the  Revolution  the  population  of  New  York 
amounted  to  about  one  hundred  and  seventy  thousand,  of  whom 
twenty  thousand  were  negroes.1  The  larger  portion  of  the  whites 
were  still  descendants  of  the  original  possessors  of  the  province,  al 
though  the  Dutch  immigration  had  almost  entirely  ceased  after  the 
English  conquest.  The  invaders  from  New  England  and  the  mother 
country,  besides  holding  their  original  settlements  on  Long  Island, 
spread  themselves  over  the  colony,  and,  with  a  continually  strength 
ening  minority,  were  here,  as  elsewhere,  the  ruling  and  dominant  race. 
There  was  also  a  large  and  most  excellent  element  of  French  Hugue 
nots,  gathered  chiefly  in  the  city  of  New  York,  which,  as  early  even 
as  the  year  1652,  had  become  so  numerous  that  the  Consistory  was 

1  Population,  Smyth,  p.  394, 1776,  200,000 ;  Brissot,  p.  128, 1773, 148,000 ;  1786, 
219,000:  Burnaby,  1759, 100,000;  15,000  to  20,000  capable  of  bearing  arms :  Doc. 
relating  to  Col.  History  of  New  York,  iv.,  1698, 18,000  whites,  2000  blacks ;  1712, 
27,000;  vi., Census  by  Clinton,  1746,  51,000  whites,  10,000  blacks;  Doc.  History, 
i.,  Table  for  years  from  1703  to  1771,  when  population  given  as  148,000  whites 
and  19,000  blacks  ;  for  Board  of  Trade,  1755,  55,000  whites ;  blacks,  11,000— see 
Bancroft,  iv.,  127  and  ff. ;  New  York  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  iv.,  274,  Smith's  History, 
1762,  100,000.  There  was  in  the  beginning  of  the  century  a  superstition  which 
interfered  with  obtaining  a  census,  because  it  was  believed  to  bring  sickness;  see 
Doc.  relating  to  Col.  History,  iv.,  1712. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  313 

obliged  to  make  special  religious  provision  for  them.  Persecution 
brought  also  to  the  settlements  of  the  Hudson  the  thrifty  and  indus 
trious  Palatines,  and  in  the  city  were  found  a  small  number  of  Jews. 
But  the  foreign  immigration,  as  a  whole,  was  not  important ;  the  bulk 
of  it  drifted  away  into  Pennsylvania,  and  left  New  York  to  the  Dutch 
and  English.1  The  settlements  of  the  people  thus  united  began  with 
the  little  towns  on  the  western  end  of  Long  Island,  and  with  the  city 
of  New  York,  the  New  Amsterdam  of  early  days,  and  the  villages  of 
the  neighborhood.  Thence  they  followed  the  Hudson,  with  its  pic 
turesque  beauty  of  mountain,  cliff,  and  meadow,  until  Albany  was 
reached,  where  they  turned  to  the  west,  and  were  pushed  out  into 
the  wilderness,  along  the  beautiful  valley  of  the  Mohawk,  and  into  the 
domains  of  the  famous  Six  Nations.  This  brief  and  irregular  line  of 
towns,  villages,  and  farms  skirting  the  edge  of  the  forests  was  all  that 
then  gave  promise  of  the  great  State  of  the  future.  Indeed  at  that 
period  the  province  was  poorly  inhabited,  in  proportion  to  its  oppor 
tunities  and  capacities,  labor  was  dear  and  development  slow.3 

The  two  great  interests  here,  as  in  Pennsylvania,  were  agriculture 
and  trade;  but  in  New  York  the  latter  was  the  ruling  and  control 
ling  interest,  even  if  it  did  not  actually  engage  the  larger  number  oJJ 
the  people.  The  great  staples  were  farm  products,  especially  wheat, 
to  which  attention  was  chiefly  given ;  and  the  fur  trade  was  also  in 
New  York  of  first  importance.  Albany  was  one  of  the  centres  of 
this  traffic;  and  a  usual  way  for  a  young  man  to  begin  life  was  to 
venture  to  the  west  to  deal  in  furs — an  occupation  which,  owing  to 
the  presence  of  French  competitors,  was  one  of  no  slight  danger,  but 
which  was  at  the  same  time  extremely  profitable.  The  successful  ad 
venturer,  returning  with  his  furs,  would  make  up  a  cargo  at  Albany 
of  skins  and  timber,  float  down  the  river  to  New  York,  and  dispose 
of  his  investment  at  a  great  advance.  The  return  cargo  was  light, 
consisting  chiefly  of  rum,  which  was  not  only  used  for  barter,  but  to 
make  the  Indians  drunk  when  they  met,  and  thus  facilitate  cheating. 
*  The  statistics  of  trade  in  New  York  are  so  wild  thai  it  is  out  of 
the  question  to  attempt  an  exact  estimate.  The  imports  and  exports 
were  probably  worth  nearly  a  million  pounds,  and  employed,  including 

1  American  Lady, Mrs.  Grant,!., 42,  200;  ii.,231;  Smyth, ii.,  378 ;  Kalm,i.,245; 
Virginia  Hist.  Reg.,  ii.,  108, 1685,  Byrd's  Letters  ;  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  iv.,  274 ;  Ratten- 
ber's  History  of  Newburg ;  Reed's  Amenia ;  Mag.  Amer.  History,  i.,  90 ;  Huguenot 
Family  in  Virginia,  p.  297 ;  Mandeville,  History  of  Flushing ;  Wood's  Long  Island, 

2  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  iv.,  Smith's  History,  p.  274  and  ff. 


314  HISTORY  OF  THE 

coasters  and  small  river  craft,  about  five  hundred  vessels.  The  Dutch 
spirit  of  enterprise  in  foreign  trade  was  conspicuous  in  New  York,  and 
the  products  of  the  province  were  carried  to  the  West  Indies,  to  Lis 
bon,  England,  and  Madeira ;  while  even  the  little  sloops  from  Albany 
made  long  voyages.  It  was  one  of  these — of  eighty  tons  burden — that 
in  the  year  1785  made  the  voyage  to  China  successfully.  There  was 
also  a  great  deal  of  smuggling ;  smuggled  tea  was  largely  used,  and  an 
extensive  illicit  trade  was  kept  up  with  the  French  possessions  in  the 
West  Indies.  There  were  scarcely  any  manufactures.  The  thrifty 
Dutch  appear  to  have  made  sufficient  progress  to  have  alarmed  their 
English  conquerors ;  but  the  advance  was  lost  in  the  eighteenth  cen 
tury  ;  and  although  there  was  a  considerable  domestic  manufacture  of 
coarse  materials  for  home  use,  almost  everything  else  was  imported. 
Feeble  attempts  at  encouragement  were  made  by  the  Assembly,  but 
they  resulted  in  little.  The  iron  industry  was  almost  wholly  neglect 
ed  ;  there  was  some  manufacture  of  glass,  and  felt  hats  were  made,  but 
neither  so  well  nor  so  cheaply  as  in  England ;  and,  in  fact,  the  im 
ports  so  predominated  over  the  exports  that  it  was  often  difficult  to 
find  a  return  cargo.  The  trade  of  New  York,  however,  equalled,  if  it 
did  not  exceed,  that  of  either  Boston  or  Philadelphia,  and  the  town 
was  already  a  distributing  point  for  the  other  colonies.  Tradesmen 
and  mechanics,  especially  among  the  Germans  and  Dutch,  were  more 
common  than  elsewhere ;  and  we  hear  of  itinerant  weavers  who  went 
from  house  to  house  to  finish  work.  But  industries,  except  those  of 
the  grist  and  saw  mills,  built  in  the  picturesque  Dutch  fashion,  with 
wide-spread  sails,  could  not  attain  any  vigorous  growth  where  land 
was  so  plenty  and  so  cheap.  Servants,  imported  especially  to  work 
at  trades,  betook  themselves  to  farms  as  soon  as  they  obtained  their 
liberty ;  and  the  great  fertility  of  the  soil  made  the  farmers  careless 
in  their  methods.  Agriculture  was  low,  as  in  the  other  colonies ;  yet 
the  province,  as  a  ivhole,  was  flourishing  and  prosperous,  and  the  active 
trade  and  energetic  merchants  brought  much  wealth  to  the  country.1 

1  For  trade  and  industry,  see  Huguenot  Family  in  Virginia,  p.  297 ;  American 
Lady,  i.,  77,  79,  87  ;  Smyth,  ii.,  394 ;  Brissot,  p.  125;  Kalm,  i.,  253  and  ff . ;  ii.,  240, 
257 ;  Burnaby,  p.  109  ;  Pennsylvania  Hist.  Coll.,  i.,  Hare's  Journey ;  Denton's  Ac 
count  of  New  York ;  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  iv.,  Smith,  p.  274 ;  Munsell's  Annals  of  Albany, 
i.,  iv. ;  Doc.  relating  to  Col.  Hist,  of  New  York,  iv.,  1708;  v.,  273;  vi.,  Cosby  and 
Moore  to  Lords  of  Trade,  Clinton's  Census,  1744 ;  Doc.  History,  i.,  1720  and  1723  ; 
iv.,  1737;  Acts  of  Assembly,  1712,  1760;  Rochefoucauld,  ii.,  233,  235;  Historic 
Tales  of  the  Olden  Time,  Watson,  1685. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  315 

After  many  vicissitudes,  beginning  with  the  commercial  despotism 
of  the  Dutch  and  the  oppressive  rule  of  James  II.,  the  political  sys 
tem  of  New  York  had  finally  settled  down  to  the  common  form  of 
the  royal  provinces ;  but,  owing  to  the  events  of  the  past,  the  gov 
ernment  was  more  corrupt,  the  administration  more  inefficient  and  ar 
bitrary,  and  the  power  of  the  popular  representatives  feebler  than  any 
where  else.  The  Governor  was  appointed  by  the  Crown,  had  a  salary 
of  fifteen  hundred  pounds  a  year,  and  perquisites  amounting  to  as 
much  more,  which  made  him  the  best-paid  Crown  officer  on  the  con 
tinent  ;  and  his  political  power  was,  moreover,  very  great.  The  Coun 
cil  of  twelve  members  was  appointed  by  him  at  pleasure,  sat  as  an 
Upper  House,  and  had  a  negative  on  legislation.  The  Assembly,  con 
vened  by  the  Governor,  consisted  of  twenty-seven  members  elected  by 
the  freeholders  of  the  counties,  with  three  from  the  Rensselaer,  Liv 
ingston,  and  Courtland  Manors  respectively.  Before  Clarke's  time  the 
duration  of  the  Assembly  was  indefinite ;  but  it  was  then  fixed  at  three 
years,  and,  later,  at  seven,  on  the  English  model.  The  Assembly  was 
ill-managed,  and  greatly  under  the  influence  of  the  Governor,  who  gave 
patents  for  lands  to  his  supporters  at  low  quit-rents;  thus  keeping 
down  small  holders,  and  creating,  to  his  own  advantage,  a  class  who 
fomented  the  dissensions  between  the  English  and  Dutch.  The  whole 
government,  says  William  Smith,  the  historian  and  judge,  who  had  had 
a  full  experience  in  the  matter,  was  nothing  more  tjian  that  of  a  small 
corporation.1 

New  York  was  by  no  means  in  so  good  a  condition  financially  as 
the  other  colonies;  having  not  only  the  usual  depreciated  currency, 
and  a  debt  of  three  hundred  thousand  pounds,  incurred  chiefly  in  the 
French  war,  but  suffering  also  from  burdensome  taxation  as  compared 
with  that  of  the  other  provinces.  Taxes  were  raised  by  duties  on  ne 
groes  and  other  imported  articles,  and  by  direct  levies  on  real  and  per 
sonal  estate ;  and  as  their  amount  was  considerable,  this  clumsy  meth 
od  was  unjust  and  oppressive.  Such  a  condition  of  affairs  was  due 
not  only  to  an  ill-managed,  expensive,  and  sometimes  corrupt  govern 
ment,  but  to  the  exposed  situation  of  the  colony,  which  made  the  fron 
tiers  the  scene  of  battle  in  every  war,  and  necessitated  constant  expen 
ditures  for  defence.  In  the  early  days  each  man  contributed  to  stock 
ade  the  towns  ;  outlying  houses  were  built  to  resist  attacks,  the  town 
gates  were  shut  at  night,  and  every  citizen  took  part  in  watch  duty 

1  Burnaby,  p.  Ill ;  Hist.  Coll.,  iv.,  Smith's  History,  p.  274  and  ff. 


316  HISTORY  OF  THE 

and  military  service ;  for  the  Dutch  West  India  Company  had  always 
kept  troops  at  New  York,  and  the  English  followed  their  example. 
At  the  time  of  the  French  war  severe  and  elaborate  militia  laws  were 
passed,  requiring  the  enlistment  of  every  able-bodied  man  between  six 
teen  and  sixty,  and  exacting  a  penalty,  in  case  of  failure  to  obey,  of 
forty  shillings  for  every  three  months.  At  the  close  of  the  French 
war  the  militia  was  computed  to  amount  to  over  fifteen  thousand 
men,  and  there  were  twenty -six  hundred  regular  provincial  troops; 
but  although  all  this  was  costly  enough,  the  army  never  rose  to  the 
dignity  of  a  profession.1 

The  bench  and  bar  both  suffered  from  the  character  of  the  govern 
ment  and  the  power  of  the  governors,  although  they  were  beginning 
to  improve  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution.  The  arrangement  was  that 
familiar  in  the  other  colonies.  The  lowest  courts  were  those  of  the 
justices  competent  to  try  cases  under  five  pounds,  and  appointed  by 
the  Governor,  who  gave  these  places  to  political  favorites,  generally 
men  of  no  character,  and  some  of  whom  could  not  even  read  or  write. 
Above  these  were  the  courts  of  sessions  and  common  pleas,  composed 
of  three  judges,  who  sat  twice  a  year,  and  were  appointed  by  the  Gov 
ernor  during  his  pleasure.  The  supreme  court  of  the  province  con 
sisted  of  a  chief-justice  and  two  associate  justices,  who  sat  four  times 
a  year,  and  were  appointed  by  the  Governor,  but  held  during  good 
behavior.  They  had  jurisdiction  as  king's  bench  and  common  pleas, 
and  claimed  that  of  equity  and  the  exchequer ;  but  these  last  were  dis 
continued  on  account  of  the  general  opposition.  There  was  a  vice- 
admiralty  court,  with  one  judge,  also  appointed  by  the  Governor.  Over 
three  hundred  pounds,  an  appeal  lay  from  the  supreme  court  to  the 
Governor  and  Council,  and  equity  was  with  the  Governor  as  chancellor, 
but  this  court  was  so  much  disliked  that  its  business  was  very  small. 
Probate  carried  on  by  delegates  was  one  of  the  Governor's  many  per 
quisites,  and  its  administration  in  this  way  was  exceedingly  unpopu 
lar.  At  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  condition  of  both 
bench  and  bar  was  very  bad.  The  chief-justice  was  a  good  soldier,  but 
no  jurist ;  and  the  lawyers  so  called  were  often  of  scandalous  char 
acter.  "  One  of  them,"  says  a  contemporary,  "  was  a  dancing-master ; 
another,  a  glover  by  trade ;  a  third,  which  is  Mr.  Jamison,  was  con- 


1  Taxation  and  Militia,  Munsell's  Annals  of  Albany,  i. ;  Watson,  Historic  Talcs 
of  the  Olden  Times;  Acts  of  Assembly,  1755,  1756, 1761 ;  Burnaby,  pp.  108,  109, 
115. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  317 

deinned  in  Scotland  for  burning  the  Bible  and  blasphemy ;"  and  near* 
ly  all  were  violent1  demagogues.  Matters  improved  somewhat  as  time 
went  on ;  but  at  the  period  of  the  Revolution,  although  three  years  at 
college  or  seven  years  in  an  office  were  required,  the  Governor  licensed 
everybody,  and  there  were  many  practitioners,  therefore,  who  pos 
sessed  neither  character  nor  learning.  The  profession,  of  course,  in  an 
active  business  community  was  both  popular  and  profitable,  and  the 
fees  were  high,  so  that  it  attracted  the  best  as  well  as  the  worst  ele 
ments.  The  trouble  lay  in  the  non-enforcement  of  the  law,  and  in 
the  bad  government  which  admitted  unfit  men  as  freely  as  trained  law 
yers  of  good  standing.1 

Until  after  the  French  war  the  profession  of  medicine  was  worse 
than  that  of  law,  and  practised  almost  exclusively  by  a  much  lower 
class.  The  only  attempt  to  regulate  it  was  a  clause  in  the  Duke's 
Laws  of  the  year  1665,  to  prevent  violence  on  the  part  of  doctors  to 
ward  patients.  Quacks  abounded ;  there  was  no  protection  from  mal 
practice,  and  any  one  that  saw  fit  set  up  as  a  physician,  surgeon,  or 
apothecary,  to  prey  on  the  ills  of  his  fellows,  which,  thanks  to  the  gen 
eral  good  health,  were  neither  many  nor  frequent.  In  the  year  1753, 
there  were  in  the  town  of  New  York  alone  forty  of  these  unlicensed 
practitioners.  Just  before  that  time  the  first  gleam  of  improvement 
was  perceptible  in  an  attempt  to  give  instruction  from  dissection, 
then  came  the  demand  for  army  surgeons;  and  in  the  year  1760 
the  Assembly  passed  an  act  to  prevent  bad  physicians,  and  ordered 
that  no  one  should  practise  without  a  certificate  from  three  members 
of  the  Council  and  the  supreme  court.  This  was  a  step  in  the  right 
direction.  Seven  years  later  a  medical  school  was  founded  in  connec 
tion  with  the  college,  and  two  years  after  that  a  medical  society  was 
established,  and  the  profession  began  to  assume  a  suitable  position, 
and  attract  men  of  ability  and  character.2 

The  third  and  last  of  the  learned  professions,  that  of  divinity,  stood 
much  higher  than  either  law  or  medicine.  The  province  was  estab 
lished  by  members  of  the  Dutch-Lutheran  and  Dutch-Reformed  Church 
es,  and  by  English  Independents  and  Presbyterians ;  and  these  remained 
always  the  leading,  although  not  the  ruling,  sects.  Both  the  Dutch  and 

1  For  full  accounts  of  bench  and  bar,  see  Hist.  Coll.,  iv.,  Smith's  History,  p.  274 
and  ff. ;  Doc.  relating  to  Col.  Hist.,  iv.,  vi.,  1767 ;  compare  also  Brissot,  p.  130;  and 
Zenger's  trial  for  Hamilton's  speech,  and  state  of  law  and  lawyers. 

2  Brissot,  p.  130 ;  Hist.  Coll.,  iv.,  Smith's  History,  p.  274  and  ff. ;  Acts  of  Assem 
bly,  1760 ;  Wickes,  History  of  Medicine  in  New  Jersey,  pp.  37,  52. 


318  HISTORY  OF  THE 

English  dissenting  clergy  were  men  of  good  character,  and  for  a  long 
period  were  the  only  learned  class  in  the  colony.  -In  the  Long  Island 
towns  the  same  system  and  the  same  forms  prevailed  as  in  New  Eng 
land.  Down  to  the  eighteenth  century  the  people  were  summoned  to 
church  by  beat  of  drum,  and  constables  searched  the  village,  and  espe 
cially  the  taverns,  for  profaners  of  the  Sabbath  and  truants  from  di 
vine  service,  and  punished  them  with  fines  and  the  lash.  Amusements 
were  discountenanced,  and  Puritan  strictness  reigned.  The  same  the 
ory  prevailed  in  the  Dutch  congregations,  but  was  much  less  rigidly 
carried  out.  The  clergy,  with  a  few  exceptions,  were  zealous  and  up 
right  men ;  and  the  pastor  was  always  the  chief  personage  in  the  lit 
tle  Dutch  villages.  They  were  generally  jolly  companions  and  free 
livers,  and  not  infrequently  rough  in  their  dealings ;  but  they  preach 
ed  good  morals  to  their  congregations  with  perfect  directness,  and  not 
a  little  personality.  One  parishioner,  severely  reprimanded  in  the  ser 
mon,  ventured  to  expostulate  in  church,  and  the  pastor  replied,  "  You, 
Philip,  if  you  can  preach  gospel  better  than  I,  come  up  here  and  try." 
Church  manners,  indeed,  among  the  Dutch,  do  not  seem  to  have  been 
of  the  best.  In  the  little  church  in  Albany,  with  its  pyramidal  belfry, 
the  men  sat  with  their  high-crowned  hats  and  muffs  on,  out  of  respect 
to  the  climate.  The  deacons  went  about  during  the  sermon  with  a 
little  black  bag  and  bell  to  take  up  contributions,  but  were  obliged  to 
resort  to  plates,  for  the  shrewd  traders  of  the  congregation,  when  their 
gift  could  not  be  seen,  contented  themselves  with  dropping  anything 
that  had  a  chinking  sound  into  the  bag.  The  tendency  to  strict  ob 
servances  in  the  Reformed  churches  is  indicated  by  a  proclamation 
forbidding  sports  on  Shrove-Tuesday ;  but  it  is  evident  that  the  Dutch 
were  too  stolid  and  good-natured  to  indulge  in  any  great  severity  in 
this  respect. 

The  general  policy  under  the  Dutch  rule  was  one  of  toleration,  to 
which  the  luckless  Quakers  formed  the  only  exception.  These  peo 
ple,  who  arrived  in  New  York  in  the  year  1657,  and  preached  in  the 
streets,  were  at  once  arrested,  and  driven  from  the  colony ;  and  when 
at  a  later  time  they  reappeared  in  Long  Island,  the  Dutch  impris 
oned  and  maltreated  them,  closed  their  conventicles,  chained  them  to 
wheelbarrows,  punished  those  persons  married  in  the  Quaker  fashion 
for  adultery,  and  had  them  beaten  with  tarred  ropes  until  they  faint 
ed,  while  the  English  whipped  them  through  the  streets  for  sedi 
tion.  This  persecution  was  as  ineffective  as  it  was  exceptional.  There 
were,  writes  Colonel  Byrd,  of  Virginia,  as  many  sects  in  New  York  as 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  319 

in  Amsterdam,  and  all  tolerated;  but  when  the  English  supremacy  was 
assured,  all  this  was  changed.  In  the  year  1692  an  act  was  passed 
to  maintain  Protestant  ministers  in  each  town  and  county,  and  ves 
tries  and  church-wardens  were  established  to  lay  rates,  and  call  cler 
gymen  to  officiate.  Thus  the  English  Church  began  its  career,  and, 
ill-advised  as  its  policy  was  in  most  of  the  colonies,  it  was  peculiarly 
foolish  and  unwise  in  New  York.  They  continued  the  persecution 
of  the  Quakers  with  fine,  imprisonment,  and  harsh  treatment  in  the 
courts,  and  extended  this  intolerance  to  the  dissenters  of  other  sects. 
This  policy  reached  its  height  under  Cornbury,  who  forced  the  Es 
tablished  Church  upon  English  and  Dutch  alike,  taxed  all  for  its 
support,  seized  on  the  churches,  glebes,  and  parsonages  of  the  other 
sects,  enforced  the  Test  Act,  and  carried  matters  everywhere  with  a 
high  hand.  Makemie,  the  famous  Virginian  minister,  was  arrested 
for  preaching  and  thrown  into  prison,  but  was  acquitted  by  the 
jury.  A  reaction  ensued,  and  favor  was  shown  to  the  dissenters  by 
Hunter  and  others,  although  Cornbury's  policy  remained  substantial 
ly  the  policy  of  the  province.  Persecution,  it  is  true,  was  abandon 
ed  ;  but  taxes  were  laid  for  the  English  Church,  to  which  all  fa 
vors  of  government  were  given,  and  to  which  charters,  refused  to 
other  sects,  were  freely  granted.  This  harsh  and  narrow  policy 
could  have  but  one  result.  The  English  Church,  supported  by  gov 
ernment  favor,  attracted  a  certain  number  of  worshippers,  and  was 
wealthy  and  influential ;  but  yet  before  the  Revolution  it  comprised 
only  about  a  fifteenth  of  the  population,  and  every  sort  of  dissent, 
besides  the  predominant  Dutch  Reformed  and  English  Presbyterian 
Churches,  grew  and  flourished.  "  Freethinkirig,"  wrote  Samuel  John 
son,  the  New  England  convert,  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury — 
"  freethinking  spreads  as  fast  as  the  Church."  The  clever  young 
men  of  the  day  set  up  a  journal,  called  the  Independent  Reflector, 
supported  by  William  Smith,  educated  at  that  "  nursery  of  sedition, 
Yale  College,"  William  Livingston,  John  Morin  Scott,  and  others,  who 
vigorously  opposed  the  Establishment.  As  late  as  the  year  1773  pe« 
titions  came  up  from  the  Long  Island  towns  against  taxation  for  the 
Church  ;  and  "  No  Bishops  "  was  a  favorite  and  constant  election  cry. 
The  Church  was  indeed  a  principal  grievance  against  the  mother  coun 
try,  and  did  more  in  New  York  than  anything  else  to  cool  the  loyalty 
and  alienate  the  feelings  of  the  inhabitants.  Politics  diminished  the 
affection  of  the  people  for  the  Church,  while  their  respect  was  low 
ered  by  the  "  laudable  "  lotteries  for  church  building,  and  by  the  free- 


320  HISTORY  OF  THE 

living  of  divines,  like  Dr.  Cooper,  who  left  five  pounds'  worth  of  books 
in  his  library,  and  one  hundred  and  fifty  pounds'  worth  of  wine  in  his 
cellar.1 

There  was  one  sect  which  met  with  no  mercy  at  the  hands  of 
either  churchman  or  dissenter.  The  power  of  France — close  on  the 
borders  of  New  York,  with  its  wide-spreading  net-work  of  Jesuit  influ 
ence  and  political  intrigue,  always  ready,  and  at  short  intervals  letting 
hordes  of  savages  loose  upon  the  settlements — combined  with  the  nat 
ural  Protestant  prejudices  to  raise  a  spirit  of  dread  and  fierce  hatred 
toward  the  Roman  Catholics.  In  the  year  1700  an  act  was  passed 
against  Jesuits  and  Popish  priests,  "  because  they  labored  to  destroy 
and  seduce  the  Indians;"  and  all  such  priests  were,  after  a  certain  time, 
if  they  escaped  death,  to  be  imprisoned  for  life.  The  spirit  which 
produced  this  law — a  wholly  natural  one  under  the  circumstances — 
never  seems  to  have  died  out,  and  became  the  germ  of  one  of  the 
most  terrible  incidents  which  occurred  in  the  history  of  the  American 
colonies.  In  the  year  1741  public  feeling  was  aroused  against  Spain, 
and  consequently  against  Rome.  In  every  slave -holding  province 
there  is  a  normal  suspicion  and  dread  of  the  servile  class ;  for  the 
sense  of  awful  wrong  inflicted  can  never  be  separated  from  the  lurk 
ing  fear  that  retribution  is  at  hand.  These  feelings  were  now  com 
bined  ;  and  several  fires,  which  strongly  suggested  premeditation,  led 
to  the  discovery  of  the  so-called  negro  plot.  Into  its  details  it  is  not 
necessary  to  enter.  A  wretched  and  ignorant  woman,  employed  in 
a  public -house  of  the  lowest  kind  where  negroes  resorted,  actuated 
probably  by  revenge,  denounced  her  landlord,  his  wife  and  maid,  and 
one  Ury,  a  Roman  Catholic,  besides  some  slaves,  as  concerned  in  a 
plot  to  burn  the  city.  In  the  excited  state  of  the  public  feeling,  much 
less  than  this  would  have  created  a  panic ;  as  it  was,  the  whole  town 

1  For  church  and  clergy  in  New  York,  see  Huguenot  Family  in  Virginia,  p.  297 ; 
American  Lady,  i.,  42,  294 ;  ii.,  23  ;  Anderson's  Hist,  of  Col.  Church,  ii.,  439 ;  Kalm, 
i.,  250 ;  Burnaby,  p.  107;  Virginia  Hist.  Reg.,  Byrd's  Letters,  p.  108  ;  Foote,  Sketch- 
es  of  Virginia,  i.,  63  ;  Hist.  Coll.,  iv.,  Smith's  History,  p.  274 ;  iii.,  N.  S.,  1774 ;  Man- 
deville,  History  of  Flushing;  Life  and  Travels  of  Samuel  Bownas;  Onderdonk's 
Hempstead  ;  Ruttenber's  Newburg;  Riker's  Newtown;  Munsell's  Annals  of  Alba 
ny,  i.,  iii. ;  Stiles,  History  of  Brooklyn;  Doc.  relating  to  Col.  Hist.,  iii.,  iv.,vi.;  His 
toric  Tales  of  Olden  Time;  Doc.  History,  iv. ;  Acts  of  Assembly,  1692, 1695, 1714, 
1761;  Wood's  Long  Island;  Thompson's  Long  Island;  Furman's  Antiquities  of 
Long  Island ;  Long  Island  Hist.  Coll.,  i.,  Labadists'  Journal ;  Tyler's  American  Lit 
erature;  Massachusetts  Hist.  Coll.,  i.,  2,160;  Jones's  Hist,  of  New  York  in  the 
Revolution. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  321 

went  mad.  On  the  most  insufficient  evidence — chiefly  that  of  igno 
rant  wretches  half  dead  with  fear — a  perfect  slaughter  ensued.  One 
hundred  and  fifty-four  negroes  and  twenty  whites  were  arrested  and 
committed  to  jail.  Four  whites  were  hanged,  seventy  negroes  trans 
ported,  eighteen  hung,  and  thirteen  burnt  at  the  stake.  Thirty-five 
lives  in  all  were  sacrificed,  and  a  large  proportion  suffered  the  most 
cruel  form  of  death.  The  dominant  motive  was  the  dread  of  the  Pa 
pists  and  Spaniards ;  for  even  at  the  most  excited  moment  no  one 
supposed  that  the  miserable  blacks  were  aught  but  tools.  Oglethorpe 
wrote  from  Georgia  that  Spanish  priests  were  to  be  introduced  into 
families  as  physicians  and  dancing-masters,  who  would  burn  every  town 
in  America;  and  at  a  later  time  Governor  Clarke  wrote  that  he  was 
convinced  it  was  Popery,  and  it  was  generally  believed  that  Spain  was 
preparing  to  send  troops  to  support  the  conspiracy.  The  Roman  Cath 
olics,  at  no  time  more  than  a  handful  of  the  population,  were  general 
ly  arrested,  and  Catholic  priests  were  in  danger  of  their  lives.  These 
wild  stories  were  firmly  believed,  and  only  too  thoroughly  acted  on, 
The  negro  plot  belongs  to  the  same  class  of  popular  madness  as  the 
Salem  witchcraft  and  the  Popish  plot  of  the  time  of  Charles  II.  Such 
outbursts  seem  to  have  all  the  qualities  of  an  epidemic  disease,  like 
cholera  or  yellow-fever,  except  that  they  are  moral  and  mental,  instead 
of  physical.  The  Salem  witchcraft  has  been  used  for  generations  to 
brand  with  the  stain  of  bloody  deeds  the  people  of  New  England. 
It  occurred  at  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century ;  it  appealed  to  a 
strong  and  generally  accepted  superstition ;  it  was  concerned  with  su 
pernatural  agencies,  was  recognized  by  law,  and  the  best  evidence  at 
tainable  under  the  circumstances  was  introduced.  The  New  York 
negro  plot  happened  in  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century.  It  was 
concerned  with  a  crime  perfectly  within  the  range  of  ordinary  tests 
and  common  evidence.  The  accused  were  little  more  than  savages, 
as  incapable  of  combination  as  children.  In  Massachusetts  nineteen 
persons  were  hanged,  and  one,  refusing  to  plead,  pressed  to  death.  In. 
New  York,  half  a  century  later,  twenty-two  persons  were  hanged,  and 
thirteen  burnt  at  the  stake.  This  comparison  is  worthless  if  it  shows 
merely  that  the  people  of  New  York  were  no  better  than  those  of  Mas 
sachusetts.  What  it  really  proves  is  that  all  communities  are  liable  to 
mental  disease,  which,  under  favorable  circumstances,  becomes  a  wild 
panic  and  convulsion,  and  leads  to  indiscriminate  bloodshed.  Such 
events  are  among  the  miseries  incident  to  humanity  under  certain 
conditions,  and  as  such  should  be  recorded  by  history ;  but  there  is 

21 


322  HISTORY  OF  THE 

nothing  more  shallow  or  contemptible  than  to  use  them  as  a  reproach 
and  to  affix  a  stigma.  They  are  not  crimes;  they  are  misfortunes, 
and  only  by  regarding  them  in  this  way  can  their  lessons  be  learned.1 
The  unhappy  race  that  chiefly  suffered  in  this  outbreak  was  not  in 
New  York  an  important  element  of  the  population,  although  negroes 
were  more  numerous  than  would  naturally  be  supposed  when  the  cli 
mate  and  productions  of  the  province  are  considered.  Under  the 
Dutch,  and  especially  at  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
large  cargoes  of  slaves,  despite  the  risks  from  pirates,  were  brought 
into  the  province.  The  negroes  thus  became  very  numerous,  and  were 
so  riotous  that  Cornbury  issued  a  proclamation  ordering  every  one  to 
fire  upon  them  if  they  did  not  obey.  A  few  years  later  there  was  a 
savage  outbreak,  with  fire  and  riot,  in  which  several  whites  were  killed, 
and  of  twenty-seven  negroes  seized  and  condemned,  twenty-one  were 
executed.  Some  were  burned,  some  hanged ;  one  was  broken  on  the 
wheel,  and  one  hung  alive  in  chains.  The  lingering  recollection  of  this 
riot  was  a  principal  element  in  the  causes  which  led  to  the  negro  plot 
of  1741,  which  had  no  real  existence,  and  produced  so  much  worse  re 
sults.  The  numbers  and  disposition  of  the  negroes  caused  objections 
to  them  as  servants,  efforts  to  replace  them  with  whites,  and  attempts 
to  check  their  importation.  The  result  was  that  at  the  period  of  the 
Revolution  they  did  not  comprise  more  than  a  sixth  of  the  popula 
tion.  They  were  employed  almost  exclusively  as  domestic  servants, 
and  only  very  rarely  as  field  hands ;  but  almost  every  family  of  any 
consequence  had  some  of  them  in  their  household.  The  laws  in  re 
gard  to  them  were  on  the  Virginia  model,  but  much  less  severe.  They 
could  be  punished  by  their  masters  at  a  discretion  not  extending  to  life 
or  limb ;  and  the  same  limitation  was  placed  on  the  power  of  the  jus 
tices  before  whom  they  were  brought  for  striking  a  white  person. 
They  could  not  be  witnesses  except  against  each  other  in  certain 
specified  cases,  were  usually  handed  over  to  a  common  whipper  for 
punishment,  and  for  ordinary  criminal  offences  they  were  whipped 
where  a  white  person  was  fined.  For  felonies  they  were  condemned 
to  death  in  such  form  as  the  enormity  of  the  crime  warranted ;  and, 
instead  of  being  hung  in  all  cases,  were  not  infrequently  burned  at 
the  stake.  The  severest  laws  were  with  reference  to  acts  which  might 


1  Horsmanden's  Negro  Plot ;  Historic  Tales  of  the  Olden  Time,  Watson ;  Acts  of 
Assembly,  1700;  Valentine's  History  of  New  York,  Negro  Plot;  Stone,  Life  of 
Johnson,  ditto ;  Doc.  relating  to  Col.  History  of  New  York,  ditto,  vi.,  1741. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  323 

lead  to  a  general  rising ;  and  here  the  dread  of  the  community  found 
full  expression.  If  more  than  three  slaves  met  together  they  were 
to  receive  forty  lashes ;  and  any  slave  out  after  nightfall  was  liable  to 
be  declared  a  rogue  and  runaway,  and  treated  accordingly.  Flight  to 
Canada,  while  in  possession  of  the  French,  was  expiated  by  death ; 
and  heavy  penalties  were  laid  on  all  who  harbored  or  received  these 
fugitives.  They  were  in  every-day  practice  well  and  kindly  treated, 
and  properly  clothed  and  fed.  They  formed  part  of  the  family,  and 
it  was  customary  to  give,  with  some  ceremony,  to  each  child  of  the 
master  a  negro  child  of  the  same  age  as  a  servant.  Their  religious 
and  secular  education  was  but  little  attended  to,  although  even  here 
there  was  a  marked  difference  from  the  southern  colonies.  The  As 
sembly  passed  an  act  to  encourage  their  baptism,  which,  however,  ef 
fected  no  change  in  their  status ;  and  efforts  were  made  by  charitable 
societies  in  England  to  provide  schools  for  the  blacks,  where  they 
might  learn  to  read  and  sew.  The  physical  prejudice  was  much 
stronger,  both  as  to  negroes  and  Indians,  than  in  the  south,  and  there 
was  very  little  mixture  of  races;  but,  on  the  whole,  slavery  in  New 
York  was  as  mild  as  it  could  well  be  made.  There  was  very  little 
hard  usage,  and  bad  slaves,  instead  of  being  punished  on  the  spot, 
were  usually  sold  at  the  coffee-houses  for  the  West  Indian  market. 
There  were  also  in  New  York,  as  in  the  other  colonies,  indented  ser 
vants;  but  they  do  not  appear  to  have  been  very  important,  except 
from  their  bad  character  as  convicts,  whose  importation  was  encour 
aged  by  both  Dutch  and  English  rulers,  and  strenuously  resisted  by 
the  colonists.1 

From  the  negroes,  the  free  blacks,  peculiarly  numerous  here  on 
account  of  those  formerly  belonging  to  the  Dutch  West  India  Com 
pany,  from  transported  convicts,  and  from  the  dregs  of  a  trading  and 
seafaring  community,  the  criminal  classes  in  New  York  were  recruit 
ed.  But  crime  was  rare,  and  robbery,  murder,  and  suicide — the  in 
dex  of  misery — were  alike  uncommon.  Life  and  limb  and  property 

1  Slaves  and  servants,  American  Lady,  i.,  51,  58,  171,  294,  304  ;  Kalm,  ii.,  267 ; 
Hist.  Coll.,  iv.,  Smith,  p.  274  and  ff. ;  Ibid.,  iii.,  N.  S.,  Extracts  from  Newspapers ; 
Hiker's  History  of  Newtown  ;  Munsell's  Annals  of  Albany,  i.,  1691 ;  iv.,  1702 ;  x., 
1733, 1737  ;  Stiles,  History  of  Brooklyn,  i.  ;  De  Voe's  Markets  of  New  York ;  Doc. 
relating  to  Col.  History,  iv.,  v. ;  Hist.  Tales  of  Olden  Time,  Watson ;  Acts  of  Assem 
bly,  1702, 1705, 1706, 1709, 1714, 1753 ;  Furman's  Antiquities  of  Long  Island ;  Val 
entine's  History  of  ^ew  York ;  Thompson's  History  of  Long  Island ;  Rochefoucauld, 
i.,  376 ;  ii.,  23S,  449 ;  Hist.  Coll.  of  Long  Island,  i.,  Labadists'  Journal. 


324  HISTORY  OF  THE 

were  safe  throughout  the  province,  where  every  one  had  too  good  an 
opportunity  for  honest  success  to  make  crime  either  tempting  or 
profitable.  In  early  times  the  colony  suffered  from  pirates,  and  to  a 
much  greater  degree  than  elsewhere  on  account  of  the  characteristic 
corruption  of  the  government.  Pirates  harbored  in  the  little  Long 
Island  ports,  and  bought  immunity  from  Governor  Fletcher,  at  whose 
house  the  Jacobite  Club  met,  by  gifts  of  ships  and  presents  to  his 
wife  and  daughter.  Protections  were  openly  sold  in  New  York,  and 
the  gain  was  so  great  from  this  nefarious  traffic  that  Lord  Bellomont, 
in  suppressing  it,  encountered  a  general  resistance  and  much  unpopu 
larity  ;  and  his  success  against  the  pirates,  it  was  generally  said,  cost 
the  province  one  hundred  thousand  pounds  a  year.  The  abolition  of 
piracy  was  succeeded  by  much  smuggling  and  illicit  trade ;  and  the 
opposition  in  New  York  to  the  English  navigation  laws  was  exception 
ally  bitter.  Crime  in  general  was  dealt  with  in  the  usual  rough  and 
ready  fashion.  There  were  many  capital  crimes  expiated  at  the  stake 
and  the  gallows,  and  the  lash  and  the  pillory  were  the  favorite  penal 
ties  for  lesser  offences ;  while  in  the  Long  Island  towns  the  odd  New 
England  customs  prevailed.  Criminals  were  there  obliged  to  stand  in 
the  market-place,  or  sit  in  the  stocks  on  court  day,  with  placards  on 
their  breasts,  or  bridles  in  their  mouths  and  rods  under  their  arms — 
a  spectacle  and  warning  to  the  crowd.  A  specific  case  brings  up  be 
fore  us,  better  than  any  general  statement,  a  picture  of  the  time  when 
the  stocks,  the  pillory,  and  the  whipping-post  were  in  vogue,  and  when 
criminals  were  not  looked  upon  as  an  oppressed  class.  In  the  year 
1756  two  women,  for  grand  larceny,  were  carted  down  Broadway  and 
Maiden  Lane  to  the  whipping-post,  where  they  each  received  thirty- 
nine  lashes.  They  were  then  sent  to  jail  for  a  week,  and,  after  their 
liberation,  banished  from  the  city.  Crowds  flocked  to  see  such  sights, 
and  the  attendance  was  especially  numerous  at  an  execution,  as  at 
Poughkeepsie,  before  the  Revolution,  where  a  white  man  and  a  negro 
were  both  burned  at  the  stake  for  incendiarism.1 

There  was  probably  even  less  pauperism  than   crime,  and   such 

1  Crime,  Hist.  Coll.,  iv.,  Smith,  p.  274  and  ff. ;  Ibid.,  iii.,  N.  S.,  Extracts  from 
Newspapers ;  Mandeville,  Hist,  of  Flushing ;  Furman's  Brooklyn ;  Munsell,  Annals, 
iv.,  1701 ;  x.,  1737 ;  Stiles,  Hist,  of  Brooklyn,  ii. ;  De  Voe's  Markets  of  New  York  ; 
Moulton's  New  York  170  years  ago ;  Doc.  relating  to  Col.  Hist.,  iv.,  1698,  Bellomont 
to  Lords  of  Trade ;  Hist.  Tales  of  Olden  Time,  Watson ;  Acts  of  Assembly,  1708 ; 
Smith's  Hist,  of  Dutchess  County;  Bolton's  Westchester, i.,  436,  Ballad  of  Captain 
Kidd. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  325 

as  existed  was  dealt  with,  so  far  as  any  one  concerned  themselves 
about  it  at  all,  in  the  New  England  fashion.  An  act  of  Assembly, 
in  the  year  1691,  ordered  the  towns  to  make  provision  for  the  poor, 
and  obliged  all  persons  without  visible  means  of  support  to  give  sure 
ty  that  they  would  not  come  on  the  parish.  In  the  towns  paupers 
were  sold  at  auction  for  terms  of  years,  and  their  children  were  sold 
as  apprentices.  A  characteristic  example  of  the  methods  in  vogue 
occurs  in  the  records  of  Brooklyn,  where  it  is  ordered  that  "  Mad 
James"  be  kept  by  Kings  County  generally,  and  that  the  deacons 
settle  the  proportions  of  the  towns  for  the  expense.1  The  colonists, 
it  must  be  remembered,  were  in  these  matters  quite  as  advanced  as 
the  rest  of  the  world,  and  they  had  an  important  advantage  over  Eu 
rope,  in  the  fact  that  neither  crime  nor  pauperism  were  troublesome 
or  pressing  questions. 

It  is  a  matter  of  surprise,  when  the  state  of  popular  education  in 
the  colonies  generally  is  considered,  that  there  should  have  been  com 
paratively  little  crime  or  pauperism  in  any  of  them.  In  this  matter 
of  education  New  York  was  probably  as  well  provided  as  any  of  the 
middle  provinces,  and  much  better  than  those  of  the  south ;  and  yet 
education  was  neither  widely  diffused  nor  of  good  quality.  Under  the 
Dutch,  schools  of  fair  character,  sufficiently  good  to  attract  pupils  from 
Virginia  and  the  south,  were  established  at  a  very  early  period,  and  sup 
ported  in  large  measure  by  government.  The  instruction  was  simple, 
and  the  school-master  in  New  Amsterdam  was  clerk,  chorister,  and 
visitor  of  the  sick ;  in  the  little  villages,  sexton  and  chorister ;  and  al 
ways  a  personage  of  local  importance.  Under  the  English  education 
seems  to  have  fallen  off.  The  Assembly  did  nothing  except  to  pass 
an  act  for  the  establishment  of  grammar-schools  in  the  town  of  New 
York;  and  at  a  much  later  date  appropriate  the  proceeds  of  divers 
lotteries  to  the  use  and  benefit  of  the  college.  The  best  schools — car 
ried  on  generally  for  nine  months  in  the  year  by  itinerant  masters, 
who  were  boarded  among  the  inhabitants  and  paid  by  fees — were  to 
be  found  in  the  Long  Island  towns,  where  they  had  been  founded  and 
maintained  by  the  English  settlers,  and  in  New  York  and  its  imme 
diate  neighborhood.  There,  about  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  cen 
tury,  King's  College  was  established  through  the  exertions  of  Samuel 
Johnson,  and  in  connection  with  the  Episcopal  interest.  The  college 
gave  a  good  course  of  instruction  in  the  higher  branches,  and  tuition 

1  Stiles,  Hist,  of  Brooklyn,  i. ;  Acts  of  Assembly,  1691 ;  Eager's  Hist,  of  Orange. 


326  HISTORY  OF  THE 

fees  amounted  to  only  twenty-five  shillings  a  quarter ;  but  it  did  not 
grow  rapidly ;  and  at  the  commencement  held  in  Trinity  Church  in 
1773,  and  attended  by  a  fashionable  audience,  only  five  students  re 
ceived  degrees.  One  great  obstacle  in  the  way  of  the  college  was  its 
establishment  on  a  narrow  Episcopal  basis,  which  aroused  the  hostility 
of  the  dissenters,  who  opposed  the  charter,  and  subsequently  attacked 
the  college  and  its  administration.  A  similar  difficulty,  indeed,  attend 
ed  the  schools.  The  Dutch  stubbornly  opposed  an  English  education, 
although  at  the  cost  of  ignorance ;  and  as  late  even  as  1755  the  Dutch 
Reformed  Church  imported  a  master  from  Holland,  who,  however,  fail 
ed,  and  was  obliged  to  add  English  branches.  Education  on  the  whole, 
and  throughout  the  province,  was  bad  and  insufficient,  and  there  was 
a  lamentable  amount  of  ignorance  among  the  poor  and  in  the  interior. 
The  sons  of  rich  men,  after  such  an  education  as  the  province  afford 
ed,  and  which  out  of  the  city  of  New  York  consisted  of  field  sports 
rather  than  books,  were  usually  sent  either  to^  the  New  England  col 
leges,  to  Princeton,  or  to  an  English  university;  while  the  daughters 
of  the  household  remained  at  home,  read  little,  and  studied  less.1 

In  another  point  closely  connected  with  education  the  conflict  of 
races  peculiar  to  New  York  was  strongly  manifested.  The  English 
speech  made  its  way  slowly  but  surely  from  the  time  of  the  seizure 
of  New  Netherlands.  The  trading  habits  of  the  Dutch  drew  men  of 
all  nations  to  the  colony,  so  that  even  in  the  seventeenth  century  six 
teen  languages  were  said  to  be  spoken  in  the  province ;  but  one  and 
all  gave  way  before  the  English.  The  Dutch  adhered  closely  to  their 
mother  tongue,  and  in  the  inland  towns  and  villages  clung  to  their 
preachers  and  school  -  masters ;  yet  before  the  middle  of  the  eigh 
teenth  century  the  change  had  begun,  and  the  young  people  not  only 
spoke  English,  but  went  to  the  English  churches,  and  wished  to  be 
considered  Englishmen.  The  result  of  this  mixture  of  speech  among 
the  people  generally  was  great  corruption  of  language  everywhere. 


1  American  Lady,  i.,  42,  67 ;  Burnaby,  p.  106 ;  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  iv.,  Smith,  274 
and  ff. ;  Ibid.,  Hi.,  N.  S.,  Extracts  from  Newspapers ;  Stone's  Life  of  Sir  William 
Johnson ;  Onderdonk's  Hempstead  ;  Ibid.,  Jamaica ;  Ruttenber's  History  of  New- 
burgh ;  Hiker's  History  of  Newtown ;  Furman's  History  of  Brooklyn ;  Barnard's 
Life  of  S.  Van  Rensselaer ;  Stiles,  i.,  1656,  and  iii. ;  Watson,  Historic  Tales  of  the 
Olden  Time;  Doc.  relating  to  Col.  History,  vi.,  1753;  Doc.  History;  Acts  of  As- 
sembly,  1702, 1756  ;  Furman's  Antiquities  of  Long  Island  ;  Long  Island  Hist.  Soc. 
Coll.,  i.,  Journal  of  Labadists  ;  Bolton's  History  of  Westchester ;  Tyler's  American 
Literature ;  Massachusetts  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  i.,  2, 150. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  327 

English  prevailed ;  but  in  some  counties  there  were  so  many  Dutch 
that  it  was  difficult  to  find  jurors  who  understood  the  language  of  the 
government.  The  foreign  tongues,  however,  were  doomed,  and  the 
corrupt  English  of  the  years  preceding  the  Revolution  was  a  sure  sign 
of  their  ultimate  disappearance.1 

The  great  mass  of  the  people,  as  has  already  been  said,  were  either 
farmers  or  traders,  and  most  of  these  were  of  the  middle  class  of 
small  landholders  and  shopkeepers.  But,  besides  the  social  distinc 
tions  caused  by  wealth,  there  existed  in  New  York  an  upper  class, 
stronger  and  better  defined  than  in  any  northern  province.  Slavery 
gave,  of  course,  as  in  all  the  colonies,  an  aristocratic  cast  to  the  whole 
social  and  political  system  ;  but  there  was  also  an  aristocracy  quite 
different  from  anything  in  Pennsylvania  or  New  England,  and  closely 
allied  to  the  ruling  class  in  Virginia.  They  did  not  have  the  great 
element  of  support  afforded  by  a  pure  slave  system,  but  they  had  the 
equally  important  foundation  of  large  landed  estates,  and  were  invest 
ed  with  prerogatives  of  practical  value  unknown  to  the  south.  This 
class  was  composed  almost  entirely  of  followers  of  the  system,  or  of 
the  actual  descendants  of  the  great  Dutch  proprietors,  who  had  re 
ceived  when  the  colony  was  founded  land  grants  of  almost  unlimit 
ed  extent  from  the  West  India  Company ;  and  they  formed  a  very 
striking  and  important  element  in  the  community,  both  socially  and 
politically.  The  most  famous  of  these  great  estates  was  that  of  the 
Van  Rensselaers,  comprising  all  the  territory  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Albany,  peopled  by  farmers,  and  containing  the  thriving  village  of 
Rensselaerswyck.  This  manor,  and  those  of  the  Cortlands  and  Liv 
ingstons,  were  each  entitled  to  a  representative  in  the  Assembly.  Be 
sides  these  thus  endowed  with  political  privileges,  there  was  the  hard 
ly  less  celebrated  and  extensive  Philipse  manor;  and  many  leading 
families,  principally  of  Dutch  origin — such  as  the  Schuylers  and  Cuy- 
lers — owned  or  rented  great  tracts  of  land  which  they  leased  out  to 
small  farmers.  The  proprietor  of  a  manor  was  invested  with  many 
feudal  privileges,  and  held  a  position  more  akin  to  that  of  the  Old- 
World  nobility  than  any  one  else  in  the  American  colonies. 

The  Philipse  manor-house  at  Yonkers  was  a  large  stone  building, 
•with  a  high-pitched  roof  surmounted  by  a  balustrade,  and  an  inte 
rior  at  once  luxurious  and  spacious.  The  walls  were  wainscoted,  the 

1  Kalm,  i.,235,  269  ;  ii.,  261 ;  Tyler's  Amer.  Literature;  Brodhead,  i.,  748;  ii., 
287;  Rochefoucauld,  ii.,  233,  447. 


328  BISTORT  OF  THE 

ceilings  decorated  with  arabesques,  the  chimney-pieces  of  carved  mar 
ble,  and  the  great  open  fireplaces  panelled  with  Dutch  tiles ;  while 
out-doors  and  near  the  house  was  a  handsome  formal  garden,  with 
walks  edged  with  box,  where  the  ladies  of  the  family  diverted  them 
selves  by  gardening.  On  this  estate  there  were  two  rent-days — one 
at  Philipsburgh  and  one  at  Sleepy  Hollow — and  on  these  occasions 
the  tenants,  after  paying  their  rent  in  money  and  kind,  gathered  at 
the  manor-house  and  were  feasted  by  the  landlord,  who  maintained 
thirty  white  and  twenty  colored  servants  in  his  household.  In  the 
neighboring  village  the  lord  of  the  manor  held,  once  a  year,  court- 
leet  and  court-baron,  and  meted  out  justice,  sometimes  in  early  days^ 
extending  even  to  capital  punishment.  The  other  manors  with  their 
privileges,  and  in  a  more  general  way  all  the  great  landed  estates,  re 
sembled  more  or  less  closely  that  of  the  Philipses.  All  had  large, 
well-built  houses  of  brick  or  stone,  and  were  handsomely  decorated 
and  fitted  up  within-doors.  They  all  had,  too,  their  retinues  of  serv 
ants,  great  barns,  abundance  of  horses  and  cattle,  large,  old-fashioned 
gardens,  and  great  orchards  sweeping  away  from  the  house ;  and  in 
all  reigned  hospitality  and  good  cheer.  Stained  glass,  bearing  their 
arms,  adorned  the  little  church  in  Albany,  and  everywhere  the  sense 
of  a  strong  and  acknowledged  aristocracy  was  felt.  But  the  New  York 
manors  and  estates  had  their  bad  as  well  as  their  good  side.  Lord 
Bellomont,  as  early  as  the  year  1698,  wrote  to  the  Lords  of  Trade  that 
the  province  was  not  popular,  because  people  would  not  come  as  bare 
tenants  of  the  large  proprietors,  when  they  could  have  land  in  fee-sim 
ple  in  New  Jersey  or  Pennsylvania  for  the  asking ;  and  there  can  be 
no  doubt  that  the  great  estates  and  land  to  be  held,  even  for  as  long 
a  time  as  "  while  water  ran  and  grass  grew,"  but  still  on  the  payment 
of  rent,  did  not  attract  settlers.  The  relations,  too,  between  landlord 
and  tenants  became  more  and  more  unpleasant.  There  was  wrong  on 
both  sides,  and  complaints  of  violence  and  extortion.  Just  before  the 
Revolution  riots  broke  out  on  some  of  the  manors ;  the  landlords  were 
attacked,  the  sheriff  fired  on,  and  finally  the  rising  had  to  be  suppress 
ed  by  troops.  In  the  war  for  Independence  the  great  Philipse  manor 
was  forfeited,  and  the  privileges  of  the  others  were  swept  away.  The 
great  land-owners,  although  they  resided  for  the  most  part  in  New 
York,  and  only  in  summer  on  their  estates,  were  fully  alive  to  the  ad 
vantages  of  their  position,  and  took  care  to  maintain  it.  The  manor 
of  the  Rensselaers  descended  without  a  will  to  the  eldest  son  ;  and  in 
other  cases  the  Dutch  habit  of  division  among  the  children  was  essen- 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  329 

tially  modified.  Small  portions  were  given  to  the  daughters,  and  the 
younger  sons  each  received  a  larger  and  equal  share,  while  to  the  eld 
est  went  not  only  the  lion's  share  of  the  property  but  the  paternal  and 
family  homestead ;  and  in  this  way  the  families  were  kept  together  and 
strengthened  by  what  was  practically  primogeniture.  The  influence  of 
these  great  families  in  the  counties  and  outside  of  the  town  of  New 
York  was  immense.  The  Schuylers  and  Van  Rensselaers  were  inter 
married  and  irresistible,  the  Duke  of  Rochefoucauld  tells  us ;  and  he 
adds  that  the  former  furnished  the  brains,  and  the  latter  the  money. 
The  power  of  some  of  these  great  families  was  marked  out  for  de 
struction  in  the  northern  atmosphere,  and  in  the  progress  of  American 
democracy ;  but  it  survived  and  was  still  vigorous,  even  after  the  nine 
teenth  century  had  fairly  begun.1 

The  manors  were  the  most  striking  feature  in  the  country  life  of 
New  York,  and  yet  formed  but  a  small  part  of  it.  From  the  mouth 
of  the  Hudson  to  Albany,  and  far  up  the  Mohawk  Valley,  were  scat 
tered  the  settlements  of  the  Dutch,  who  were  the  prevailing  race  among 
the  farmers.  In  the  southern  region  they  were  more  mixed  with  other 
races,  and  are  said  to  have  been  of  a  character  superior  to  those  in 
the  northern  and  western  settlements,  where  in  the  early  days  the  con 
victs  and  vagabonds  sent  out  by  the  government  had  found  a  rest 
ing-place;  but  everywhere,  with  tenacious  and  stolid  conservatism, 
they  adhered  to  the  manners  and  habits  of  their  nation.  In  the  ear 
ly  days  they  did  all  in  their  power  to  keep  off  their  restless  English 
neighbors,  who  could  only  procure  bad  titles  to  land,  but  who,  never 
theless,  pushed  on,  came  in  companies,  got  patents  from  the  Govern 
ors,  and  built  up  towns  on  Long  Island  and  in  the  neighborhood  ot 
New  York.  After  the  conquest  the  Dutch  clung  still  closer  to  their 
land,  refused  to  sell  to  the  English,  kept  their  large  estates,  and  obliged 
the  intruders  to  remain  in  the  southern  part  of  the  province,  and  en 
gage  in  trade  rather  than  agriculture.3  This  vigorous  prejudice  and 


1  Huguenot  Family  in  Virginia,  p.  296 ;  Amer.  Lady,  i.,  13,  41, 42,  92, 148,  165, 
173 ;  ii.,  292 ;  Hist.  Coll.,  iv.,  Smith,  Hist,  p.  274  and  ff. ;  Woolley's  Two  Years'  Jour- 
nal  in  New  York  ;  Barber's  Hist.  Coll. ;  Mandeville,  Hist,  of  Flushing  Old  Wills  ; 
Barnard's  S.  Van  Rensselaer  ;  Munsell's  Annals,  i. ;  Doc.  relating  to  Col.  Hist.,  1698 ; 
Furman's  Antiquities  of  Long  Island,  Livingston  House ;  Bolton's  Hist,  of  West- 
chester,  ii.,  Philipse  Manor  ;  Smith's  Hist,  of  Dutchess  County ;  Rochefoucauld,  i., 
369,376. 

2  Dutch  hostility  and  conservatism,  see  Journal  of  Claude  Blanchard,  p.  115; 
Kalm,  i.,  272 ;  ii.,  264 ;  Pennsylvania  Hist.  Coll.,  i.,  363 ;  Denton's  Description,  1670. 


330  HISTORY  OF  THE 

strong  spirit  of  exclusiveness  gave  to  the  country  life  of  New  York 
along  the  Hudson  and  Mohawk  an  almost  pure  Dutch  cast.  In  the 
interior  villages  the  utmost  simplicity  prevailed,  and  the  drowsy  life 
of  the  little  hamlets,  where  almost  every  one  was  a  farmer,  with  here 
and  there  a  few  mechanics,  flowed  on  in  peaceful  uneventfulness.  The 
farm  buildings  were  usually  near  the  rivers  and  on  the  hill-sides,  sur 
rounded  with  gardens  and  orchards.  The  houses  were  generally  of 
wood,  sometimes  of  wood  filled  in  with  yellow  Holland  brick,  with 
an  overhanging  second  story,  and  the  interiors  were  neat  and  com 
fortable,  with  low  rooms — the  heavy  beams  showing  overhead — and 
great  fireplaces  lined  with  pictured  tiles.  The  Dutch  used  no  car 
pets  before  the  Revolution,  except  a  drugget  beneath  the  table  on 
grand  occasions,  preferring  the  traditional  scrubbed  and  sanded  floor. 
The  furniture  was  plain  and  solid,  from  the  great  Holland  beds  to 
the  sideboards  and  cupboards,  filled  with  wine,  and  glittering  with 
glasses  ranged  round  a  rack  bearing  a  generous  supply  of  pipes. 
The  table  was  excellent  and  plentiful,  and  good  living  was  the  rule 
upon  the  farms.  Wood  and  pewter  were  ordinarily  used  until  the 
middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  when  the  china  hitherto  kept  for 
company  began  to  come  into  daily  use.  Both  men  and  women  were 
comfortably  dressed  in  homespun,  and  knew  little  of  the  imported 
fashions  of  the  towns.  These  farmers,  as  a  class,  were  intent  on  gain, 
slow  of  mind  and  body,  and  usually  pretty  ignorant.  They  had  their 
comfortable  superstitions  of  a  mild  character,  and  believed  in  ghosts, 
witchcraft,  and  witches,  who  in  the  early  days  were  now  and  then 
brought  to  trial  and  found  guilty;  but  they  were  also  sober,  indus 
trious,  thrifty,  and  prosperous.  To  the  southward,  and  especially  on 
Long  Island,  the  English  element  was  more  marked ;  and  the  towns 
established  there,  and  for  years  at  war  with  Stuyvesant  and  his  pred 
ecessors,  maintained  themselves  as  independent  autonomies  with  the 
paternal  New  England  form  of  municipal  government,  and  much 
strife  and  litigation  among  themselves,  until  the  advent  of  English 
rulers,  when  they  were  swept  in  with  the  rest  of  the  towns,  and  lost 
their  separate  standing.  The  condition  of  the  farmers  of  all  races, 
however,  did  not  vary  much.  They  were,  as  a  class,  remarkably  well 
off,  the  only  drawback  being  the  monotony  and  narrowness  of  their 
lives.  They  saw  little  of  each  other  except  when  harvest  or  wood 
cutting  called  for  mutual  assistance ;  and  the  only  amusements  were 
an  occasional  picnic  in  the  woods,  a  corn-husking,  or  a  spinning-bee, 
and  in  winter  skating  and  coasting ;  while  in  the  south  and  on  Long 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  331 

Island  there  were  the  additional  entertainments  of  tavern  parties,  tur 
tle  feasts,  and  weekly  bull -baitings,  with  an  occasional  horse-race. 
Thus  they  lived  on  among  the  peaceful  hills  of  the  Hudson,  sleepy 
and  contented  and  comfortable,  marking  the  passage  of  time  with 
hour-glasses  instead  of  clocks;  and  on  Long  Island  in  like  fashion, 
but  with  a  little  more  activity.  They  were  simple  and  unaffected, 
bringing  up  their  sons  to  trades,  and  their  daughters  to  household 
arts,  until  after  the  Revolution,  when  the  untiring  Yankees  poured 
in  from  New  England  in  ever-increasing  numbers,  and  proceeded  to 
develop  the  country  and  obliterate  the  slumberous  and  picturesque 
society  of  the  little  Dutch  villages,  over  which  an  enduring  halo 
has  been  cast  by  the  genius  of  Washington  Irving.1  There  was, 
in  truth,  nothing  from  without  to  disturb  them.  Men  rode  into  Al 
bany  or  the  neighboring  towns  to  barter  country  produce  at  the  va 
riety  store,  or  to  attend  church,  with  their  women-folk  on  a  cushion 
behind  them,  over  very  rough  and  stony  roads.  Saddle-horses,  farm 
wagons,  and  two-wheeled  chaises  were  the  only  modes  of  locomotion ; 
and  news  from  abroad  reached  them  slowly  and  at  long  intervals  from 
the  towns.  An  effort  was  made  in  Dongan's  time  for  an  extensive 
continental  postal  service,  in  the  interest  of  the  Duke  of  York ;  but 
it  came  to  nothing,  and  the  mails  to  Philadelphia  were  carried  by  a 
boy  in  saddle-bags,  which  no  one  thought  of  robbing,  while  in  the 
opposite  direction  they  crept  slowly  up  the  Hudson  on  board  the 
sluggish  river  craft.  The  first  stage  line  was  opened  to  the  south 
in  the  year  1756 ;  but  not  until  after  the  Revolution  were  they  es 
tablished  between  New  York  and  the  inland  villages  to  the  north.2 

The  trading  habits  of  the  people  outside  the  agricultural  interests 
tended,  of  course,  to  build  up  towns.  Albany  owed  its  existence  to  the 
fur  trade,  of  which  it  was  the  great  centre  for  the  northern  colonies ; 
and  Schenectady  grew  up  from  the  same  traffic.  In  the  earliest  times 
each  dwelling  in  Albany  was  also  a  trading-house,  with  store-rooms 


*  Smyth,  ii.,  378 ;  American  Lady,  i.,  95, 100, 104, 108 ;  ii.,  23  ;  Kalm,  i ,  235 ;  ii., 
284;  Hist.  Coll.,iv.,  Smith's  Hist.,  p.  274  and  if. ;  Weise,  Hist,  of  Troy;  Onder- 
donk's  Hempstead ;  Hiker's  Newtown  ;  Reed's  Amenia ;  Stiles's  Brooklyn ;  Wat 
son,  Hist.  Tales  of  Olden  Time ;  Wood's  Long  Island ;  Jones's  Lecture  on  Long 
Island ;  Bolton's  Westchester ;  Smith's  Hist,  of  Dutchess ;  Memoirs  of  Elkanah 
Watson  ;  Tyler's  American  Literature. 

2  Weise,  Hist,  of  Troy ;  Huguenot  Family  in  Virginia,  p.  296  ;  Munsell's  Annals, 
i. ;  Stiles's  Brooklyn,  i. ;  Doc.  relating  to  Col.  Hist,  i. ;  Watson,  Historic  Tales ;  Acts 
of  Assembly,  1708. 


332  HISTORY  OF  THE 

for  furs  in  the  second  story ;  and  the  worthy  burghers,  in  the  good 
Dutch  fashion,  made  the  little  town  a  sort  of  close  corporation,  kept 
the  trades  to  themselves,  had  apprenticeship  carefully  regulated  by 
law,  and  maintained  themselves  so  successfully,  that  even  as  late  as 
the  year  1790  a  stranger  wishing  to  transact  business  had  to  pay  five 
pounds  for  admission  as  a  freeman  of  the  town.     Albany  was  found 
ed  by  the  Dutch,  and  remained  their  stronghold  down  to  the  Revolu 
tion  long  after  they  had  lost  control  of  the  sister  city  at  the  mouth 
of  the  river ;  and  there  the  Dutch  commercial  spirit,  selfish  and  often 
cunning,  ruled  unchecked,  and  the  Dutch  peculiarities  of  life  and  man 
ners  appeared  in  full  perfection.    At  the  period  of  the  Revolution  Al 
bany  was  a  town  of  about  five  thousand  inhabitants,  with  one  long  ill- 
paved  street,  where  cattle  wandered  unrestrained,  straggling  along  the 
river's  edge.    The  houses,  with  gable-ends  to  the  street,  low  and  pictu 
resque,  with  peaked  roofs  and  long  projecting  spouts,  were  solidly  built 
of  brick  or  stone,  and  each  stood  by  itself,  with  a  garden  and  little  green 
about  it.     Some  of  the  houses  were  handsome  for  the  time,  with  spa 
cious  low  rooms  heavily  wainscoted,  the  date  of  construction  in  iron 
figures  let  into  the  yellow  imported  brick,  and  surmounted  by  elabo 
rate  gilded  weather-cocks.    In  the  door-ways  of  their  dwellings  the  old 
Dutchmen  passed  much  of  their  time,  peacefully  smoking,  and  watch 
ing  the  oscillations  of  their  own  and  their  neighbor's  vanes.     These 
porches  were  the  only  places  of  social  meeting,  and  every  one  who 
passed  had  to  pause  and  greet  the  occupants  of  the  long  benches  on 
each  side  of  the  door.    They  were  a  reserved  people,  shy  of  strangers, 
showing  great  disfavor  in  the  eighteenth  century  to  those  who  wore 
their  own  hair  in  a  queue  like  the  dreaded  Frenchmen,  but  withal 
hospitable  and  kindly.     The  rich  lived  in  great  comfort;  the  poor 
not  so  well  as  their  country  brethren.     Life  was  quiet  and  unevent 
ful.     The  only  diversions  were  in  strolling  about  and  sitting  in  the 
taverns,  where  the  men  played  billiards,  cards,  or  chess ;  but  the  ab 
sence  of  amusements  did  not  weigh  upon  them.    They  regarded  with 
almost  Puritanic  disgust  the  festivities  and  theatricals  of  the  British 
officers  at  the  time  of  the.  French  war,  and  even  as  late  as  the  year 
1786  strongly  opposed  a  public  theatre.     Everything  about  them  was 
simple  and  unaffected.     The  women  worked  hard,  rose  early,  went  to 
bed  late,  were  notable  housewives,  and  neat  almost  to  a  fault.     Their 
worst  defect,  as  a  people,  was  their  grasping  spirit  in  trade ;  to  illus 
trate  which  it  was  said  that  not  even  a  Jew  could  hope  to  get  a  liv 
ing  among  them  ;  and  there  is  no  doubt  that  travellers  complained  ve- 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  333 

hemently  of  their  extortionate  prices  and  love  of  money.  They  kept 
on  in  their  own  way,  however,  contentedly  and  prosperously  until  af 
ter  the  Revolution,  and  then  the  Yankee  appeared  in  Albany,  as  he 
did  elsewhere,  and  improved  the  city  and  developed  business,  and  cut 
off  the  long  projecting  spouts  which  had  dripped  for  a  hundred  years 
on  the  passers-by,  and  ended  by  overwhelming  the  Dutchmen,  and  ab 
sorbing  them  in  his  own  pushing,  driving  race.1 

In  the  city  of  New  York  the  original  possessors  had  lost  their  hold 
at  a  much  earlier  period  than  in  Albany,  socially  as  well  as  politically ; 
but  the  town  from  the  beginning,  and  under  every  rule,  was  the  centre 
of  provincial  life,  and  the  scene  of  constant  activity.  Trade  brought 
the  Dutch  adventurers  to  the  end  of  Manhattan  Island,  where  the  West 
India  Company  built  its  five  great  storehouses,  and  trade  built  up  the 
city,  and  continued  to  be  the  ruling  and  guiding  interest.  As  early  as 
the  year  1648  a  weekly  market  was  held  between  the  Company's  store 
houses  and  the  fort,  and  the  Dutch  "  kermis  "  took  place  every  year 
for  the  sale  of  home  productions.  Ten  years  later  the  Broadway  sham 
bles  came  into  being,  with  butchers  holding  great  and  small  burgher's 
rights ;  and  the  cattle-market  of  the  province  was  on  the  strand,  where 
the  farmers'  boats  landed.  The  narrow  and  careful  but  enterprising 
Dutch  spirit  was  manifested  for  years  in  the  strict  regulations  for 
trade  and  in  the  exclusion  from  handicrafts  of  strangers,  who  were 
not  freemen  of  the  city,  which  they  made  the  distributing  point  not 
only  for  their  own,  but  the  neighboring  provinces,  and  thus  gave  a 
strong  impulse  and  direction  to  the  whole  course  of  development. 
New  York  became  at  an  early  day,  and  has  remained,  a  great  centre 
for  trade  from  all  parts  of  the  world,  and  this  gave  in  colonial  days 
a  cosmopolitan  tone  to  the  community,  which  contrasts  strongly  with 
anything  that  can  be  found  in  the  other  provinces.  At  the  period 
of  the  Revolution  the  town  rose  gradually  from  the  quays  which  had 
been  built  at  the  southern  extremity  of  the  island,  and  extended  in 
land  for  nearly  a  mile  with  an  average  width  of  perhaps  half  that 
distance.  The  streets  were  paved,  except  on  the  high  ground,  fairly 
clean,  and  drained  by  wide  gutters  in  the  middle  of  the  highway,  to 
which  rows  of  tall  trees  on  each  side  gave  a  pleasant  look.  Many 
years  before  the  Revolution  the  streets  were  lighted  and  watched,  al- 

1  Kalra,  ii.,  256,  261,  262,  264,  267  ;  American  Lady,  i.,  44, 95 ;  ii.,  23  ;  Smyth,  ii., 
293 ;  Brissot,  p.  127 ;  Pennsylvania  Hist.  Coll.,  i.  363 ;  Barnes,  Early  Hist,  of  Alba 
ny;  Worth,  Random  Recollections  of  Albany ;  Munsell,  i.,  vii. ;  Memoirs  of  Elkanah 
Watson. 


334  HISTORY  OF  THE 

though  the  uncertain  supply  of  oil  rendered  the  former  benefit  for  a 
long  time  a  precarious  one.  The  old  Dutch  houses — which  were  all 
built  of  brick  or  stone,  commonly  of  the  former,  yellow  in  color,  and 
adorned  with  checker-work  patterns — stood  with  gable  ends  toward  the 
street,  thus  distinguishing  themselves  from  their  more  modern  neigh 
bors,  built  in  much  the  same  style  but  turning  a  full  face  to  the  road. 
Almost  all  the  houses  were  gabled,  with  high  pitched  roofs  of  shin 
gles  or  variegated  tiles  surmounted  by  a  balcony  railing,  within  which 
the  occupants  of  the  mansion  were  wont  to  sit  on  summer  evenings 
and  enjoy  the  view  of  the  harbor.  The  interiors  were  neat  and  com 
fortable,  with  low  rooms,  alcoves,  and  window-seats,  high  wainscots  of 
painted  wood-work,  and  whitewashed  walls.  The  furniture  was  solid, 
usually  of  mahogany;  no  carpets  covered  the  sanded  floors;  pewter 
and  copper  were  generally  used ;  and  china  was  rare,  although  every 
family  of  standing  had  a  certain  amount  of  massive  silver.  Hangings 
were  seldom  seen ;  but  the  influence  of  trade  and  travel  could  be  ob 
served  in  the  drawings  and  pictures  which  adorned  the  walls  of  most 
of  the  houses.  The  public  edifices  by  no  means  equalled  the  private 
houses,  and  were  for  the  most  part  insignificant ;  the  college  was  hard 
ly  finished ;  and  the  only  buildings  for  the  purposes  of  charity  were 
the  hospital  for  seamen  and  the  pest-houses  on  the  harbor  islands. 
Trade  was  better  supplied,  for  there  were  coffee-houses,  and  an  ex 
change  with  a  spreading  arcade  where  merchants  met  daily.  At  the 
time  of  the  Revolution  the  town,  although  said  to  be  less  populous 
than  either  Boston  or  Philadelphia,  numbered  about  fifteen  to  eigh 
teen  thousand  inhabitants,  and  had  the  greatest  trade  in  America. 

New  York,  moreover,  was  not  only  the  business  centre  of  the  prov 
ince,  but  that  of  law  and  government  as  well ;  besides  being,  until  rev 
olution  impended,  the  only  military  post  on  the  continent,  with  Eng 
lish  troops  and  officers  who  added  much  to  the  bustle  and  variety  of 
the  place.  In  addition  also  to  the  community  which  had  grown  up 
on  the  soil,  there  was  a  strong  foreign  element ;  and  the  result  was  a 
mixed  and  polished  society,  as  hospitable  and  much  gayer  and  more 
entertaining  than  any  other  in  the  English  possessions  in  America.1 

1  Description  of  New  York,  see  Huguenot  Family  in  Virginia,  p.  296 ;  American 
Lady,  i.,  42;  Smyth's  Tour,  ii.,  375  ;  Raynal,  1766;  Kalm,  i.,  248,  250,  258  ;  Burna- 
by,  pp.  106, 108, 113 ;  Wansey,  pp.  73, 226 ;  Denton,  1670 ;  Stiles's  Brooklyn,  i. ;  De 
Voe's  Markets ;  Watson,  Historic  Tales ;  Doc.  relating  to  Col.  History  of  New  York, 
1744;  Acts  of  Assembly,  1692,  1753,1761;  Elkanah  Watson's  Memoirs,  1784; 
Mad.  Knight's  Journal. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  335 

Some  of  the  inhabitants  were  the  great  proprietors  who  came  to  town 
for  the  winter,  and  in  spring  went  up  the  Hudson  to  their  estates; 
while  others,  of  the  more  wealthy  class,  had  handsome  country-seats  on 
Long  Island,  renowned  in  the  colonies  for  its  fine  farms  and  high  cul 
tivation.  But  the  great  majority  of  the  New  York  population  of  all 
classes  remained  in  the  pleasant  town  all  the  year  round.  They  were 
all,  with  few  exceptions,  tradesmen  of  one  sort  or  another,  from  the 
great  merchant  whose  ships  sailed  to  Europe,  down  through  the  re 
tail  dealers  and  shopkeepers,  to  the  young  adventurer,  who  started  off 
with  his  pack  of  beads  and  knives  to  truck  and  barter  with  the  In 
dians.  Most  of  them  belonged  to  the  middle  class,  who  rose  early, 
breakfasted  at  daylight,  dined  at  twelve,  and  worked  hard  at  their 
shops,  which  they  had  the  good-sense  to  close  early  in  order  to  go 
forth  for  amusement  and  exercise.  The  wealthiest  society  was  very 
fashionable  in  dress  and  manners,  and  devoted  to  the  last  London 
novelties.  The  women  wore  silks  and  velvets,  the  men  displayed 
great  luxury  at  their  tables,  and  the  tone  of  conversation  aimed  to 
be  witty,  sentimental,  and  refined.  This  society  had  its  balls,  con 
certs,  and  private  theatricals ;  and  the  gentlemen  evening  clubs  at  the 
taverns.  The  active  social  life  of  New  York  is  strongly  shown  in 
this  matter  of  clubs.  As  early  as  the  beginning  of  the  century  there 
was  a  Jacobite,  an  Irish,  and  a  French  club  ;  and  later  a  convivial 
club  of  professional  men ;  but  nowhere  does  there  appear  to  have 
been  much  indulgence  in  the  fashionable  vice  of  extravagant  gam 
ing.  Besides  in-door  amusements  there  were  in  winter  sleighing-par- 
ties  to  the  neighboring  country  tavern,  and  the  road  was  covered  in 
the  evening  with  rapidly  driven  sleighs,  which  in  fine  weather  were  re 
placed  by  picnics  and  fishing-parties,  or  turtle-feasts  at  some  favorite 
inn,  when  the  participants  drove  out  in  couples  in  the  chaises  universal 
ly  used,  and  returned  after  supper  by  way  of  the  well-known  kissing- 
b  ridge. 

The  amusements  of  the  mass  of  the  people  did  not  differ  much 
from  those  of  the  upper  class,  but  the  tone  of  society  was  strongly 
aristocratic,  and  the  distinctions  of  dress  were  carefully  observed. 
The  ladies  and  gentlemen  of  fashion  wore  silks  and  velvets,  powder 
and  wigs,  and  the  latter  carried  a  sword.  The  wealthy  tradesman 
appeared  in  broadcloth  coat,  with  spreading  skirts  and  wide  cuffs; 
the  shopkeeper  in  simple  homespun,  except  on  festivals ;  and  the 
workmen  in  leather  aprons,  which  were  never  replaced  by  a  long 
coat.  The  habits  and  amusements  of  the  middle  and  lower  classes 


336  HISTORY  OF  THE 

were  simple  and  wholesome.  They  strolled  in  the  mall  after  the 
day's  work,  or  went,  gayly  dressed,  on  a  holiday  or  Sunday  after 
noon,  to  see  an  ox  roasted  whole  on  the  Battery,  in  the  presence  of 
the  Governor  and  Council,  or  to  the  customary  bull-baiting,  or  to  the 
local  Ranelagh  and  Vauxhall,  where  they  saw  fire -works  and  drank 
beer,  and  then  danced,  and  had  a  supper  of  chocolate  and  bread,  un 
til  Dr.  Laidlie  saw  fit  to  preach  down  these  last  harmless  pleasures.! 
There  was,  indeed,  no  lack  of  public  amusements.  The  American  the 
atre  began  its  career  in  New  York  about  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth 
century  in  a  house  in  Nassau  Street,  and  from  that  time  had  a  success 
ful  existence  and  not  much  opposition,  until  it  finally  became  thorough 
ly  domesticated.  The  Dutch  had  also  a  fortunate  liking  for  holidays, 
and  these  they  kept,  and  gradually  induced  their  unresting  English 
neighbors  to  do  the  same.  There  were  five  great  festivals — Christ 
mas,  New-year's,  Passover,  Whitsuntide,  and  San  Claas,  or  St.  Nich 
olas-day.  Besides  these  there  were  the  "  Vrouwen-dagh,"  or  St.  Val 
entine's  -  day,  when  young  girls  went  about  the  streets  striking  the 
young  men  with  knotted  cords;  Easter,  May -day,  with  the  classic 
poles,  and  Pinkster,  early  in  June,  when  there  was  a  general  exodus 
to  the  woods.  Then  there  were  the  official  English  celebrations  of 
the  Gunpowder  Plot,  the  birthday  and  the  coronation,  when  great 
bonfires  were  lighted  on  the  common,  and  there  was  much  rejoicing 
and  feasting  at  the  expense  of  the  city.  New-year's-day  began  with 
firing  salutes,  and  parties  then  went  about  the  town,  stopping  at  ev 
ery  house  to  fire  guns  and  drink  punch,  with  much  indiscriminate 
burning  of  gunpowder,  forbidden  by  the  Assembly  in  the  year  1773. 
"Pinkster"  was  a  day  of  especial  liberty  for  the  negroes,  who  had 
great  picnics,  followed  by  dancing,  sometimes  of  a  most  indecent  char 
acter,  which  was  witnessed  by  all  the  people  of  the  town.  On  all  holi 
days,  and  indeed  at  other  times,  a  good  deal  of  rough  fun  was  en 
joyed  by  the  boys  of  different  parts  of  the  town,  who  indulged  in  fac 
tious  fights  in  the  streets.1 

The  social  life  of  New  York  was,  as  may  be  seen,  gay  and  pleasant, 

1  Amusements  and  habits,  see  Huguenot  Family  in  Virginia,  p.  296  ;  Brissot,  pp. 
122, 128, 140 ;  Wansey,  pp.  74,  228 ;  Kalm,  i.,  245  ;  Smyth,  ii.,  376 ;  Hist.  Coll.,  iv., 
Smith's  History,  p.  274  and  ff. ;  Ibid.,  iii.,  N.  S.,  Extracts  from  Newspapers ;  De 
Voe's  Markets  of  New  York,  1735;  Watson,  Historic  Tales  of  the  Olden  Time; 
Francis,  Old  New  York ;  Mad.  Knight's  Journal ;  Furman's  Antiquities  of  Long 
Island ;  Long  Island  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  i.,  Journal  of  Labadists  ;  Valentine's  History 
of  New  York  ;  Duer,  New  York  as  it  Was ;  Burnaby,  p.  115  ;  Rochefoucauld,  ii.,  465. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  337 

with  no  lack  of  amusements  of  all  sorts — from  bull-baiting  to  con 
certs  ;  but  the  intellectual  life  was  by  no  means  equally  strong.  In 
deed,  literature  in  New  York  had  a  feebler  existence  than  in  any  of  the 
northern  colonies.  There  was  none  deserving  of  remembrance  outside 
the  work  of  Golden — a  talented  and  versatile  man — on  the  Five  Nations, 
and  William  Smith's  History  of  New  York.  With  these  exceptions, 
the 'only  efforts  at  authorship  were  those  of  a  knot  of  clever  young 
men  who  wrote  verses  and  essays  for  the  newspapers,  mostly  of  a 
political  nature,  and  of  a  perfectly  ephemeral  character.  In  the  year 
1740  there  was  only  one  press  in  New  York,  and  two  or  three  weekly 
gazettes  alone  possessed  the  field  prior  to  the  Revolution.  Albany 
had  no  newspaper  until  the  year  1771,  and  there  was  none  on  Long 
Island  before  the  Revolution.  In  most  houses  there  was  no  literature 
except  of  a  religious  kind ;  and  the  booksellers  had  little  besides  Bibles, 
prayer-books,  and  spelling-books  in  their  stock.  Some  of  the  leading 
men,  like  Sir  William  Johnson,  imported  many  books  and  periodicals 
from  England,  and  good  private  libraries  were  not  uncommon ;  but, 
as  a  rule,  there  was  little  reading  and  less  writing  done  in  the  prov 
ince.1  f 

In  regard  to  two  of  the  three  great  events  in  each  human  life,  the 
customs  of  town  and  country  were  not  essentially  different.  Mar 
riages  were,  as  a  rule,  very  young,  very  fruitful,  and  apparently  very 
happy.  Breach-of-promise  suits  were  rare,  and  before  the  year  1786 
there  is  said  to  have  been  only  one  case  of  divorce.  Marriages  were 
at  first  by  the  publication  of  banns ;  but  this  practice  fell  into  disuse, 
and  was  replaced  by  the  Governor's  license,  which  formed  a  fruitful 
source  of  official  revenue.  The  ceremony  was  not  accompanied  by 
much  parade,  and  only  the  immediate  friends  were  present ;  but  the 
following  day  it  was  the  custom  for  the  groom  to  give  a  collation  in 
the  morning,  which  was  kept  up  all  day,  and  concluded  with  a  good 
deal  of  hard  drinking.2  The  simplicity  of  the  customs  in  relation  to 
marriage,  however,  were  more  than  made  up  for  by  the  pomp  and  cir 
cumstance  attending  funerals,  which  form  a  very  striking,  and,  from  the 

1  Kalm,  i.,  266  ;  Stone's  Life  of  Johnson ;  Furman's  History  of  Brooklyn ;  Wan- 
sey,  pp.  75,  284,  288  ;  Munsell's  Annals  of  Albany,  i. ;  Stiles,  History  of  Brooklyn, 
i. ;  Furman's  Antiquities  of  Long  Island ;  Long  Island  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  i.,  Journal 
of  Labadists ;  Tyler's  American  Literature. 

8  American  Lady,  i.,  74,  92 ;  Onderdonk's  Hempstead ;  Furman's  Brooklyn ; 
Munsell's  Annals,  i. ;  Furman's  Antiquities  of  Long  Island ;  Watson,  Historic 
Tales. 


338  -        HISTORY  OF  THE 

excess  to  which  they  were  carried,  a  peculiar  feature  of  New  York  pro 
vincial  life.  When  a  man  married  he  laid  down  always  some  fine  Ma 
deira  to  be  drunk  at  his  funeral ;  and  when  a  death  occurred  special 
invitations  were  sent  out,  the  friends  fathered  at  the  house,  scarfs  and 
gloves  were  distributed,  and  the  mourners  sat  solemnly  about  the  cof 
fin  drinking  and  smoking.  After  a  prayer,  the  bier  was  borne  to  the 
grave,  a  long  procession  following ;  and  the  invited  guests  then  return 
ed  to  the  house,  where  a  generous  feast  was  spread.  In  the  country 
only  men  went  to  the  grave,  but  in  New  York  ladies  went  also,  and 
sometimes  acted  as  pall-bearers.  One  or  two  examples  bring  home 
this  characteristic  feature  of  a  past  time  far  better  than  any  general 
description.  In  the  year  1*756  one  Lucas  Wyngaard,  an  old  bachelor, 
and  the  last  of  his  race,  died  in  Albany.  After  the  burial,  the  mourn 
ers  assembled  at  the  house  of  the  deceased  to  make  a  night  of  it. 
They  consumed  a  pipe  of  wine  and  an  endless  quantity  of  tobacco, 
kept  up  their  revels  until  morning,  broke  all  the  glasses  and  decan 
ters,  and  wound  up  by  making  a  bonfire,  of  their  scarfs  on  the  hearth. 
Such  an  instance  shows  the  excesses  which  these  funeral  feasts  some 
times  caused ;  but  all  were  deeply  marked  by  pomp  and  expense.  A 
funeral  often  cost  three  or  four  thousand  dollars.  The  first  wife  of 
the  patroon,  Stephen  Van  Rensselaer,  was  buried  at  a  cost  of  twenty 
thousand  dollars;  two  thousand  scarfs  were  distributed,  and  all  the 
tenants  of  the  manor  came  into  Albany,  where  they  were  entertained 
for  three  or  four  days  at  the  expense  of  their  landlord.  On  the  death 
of  any  prominent  man  or  person  of  wealth,  a  general  invitation  to  the 
obsequies  was  given  from  the  pulpit,  and  cakes  and  Madeira  were  pro 
vided  for  the  crowds  that  came  to  partake  of  them.  At  an  official  fu 
neral  the  parade  was  even  greater;  as  in  the  case  of  James  De  Lancey, 
who  died  in  1760.  Minute-guns  were  fired  from  the  forts  and  ship 
ping  while  the  procession,  half  a  mile  in  length,  moved  slowly  from 
the  house  to  Trinity  Church.  First  came  the  clerks  of  the  church, 
the  rector,  and  the  clergy  of  the  Protestant  denominations,  in  the  in 
evitable  chaises ;  then  the  hearse,  drawn  by  white  horses,  with  the  cof 
fin,  covered  with  a  velvet  pall  emblazoned  with  gold  escutcheons ;  and 
finally  the  relatives,  members  of  the  Assembly,  magistrates,  and  gen 
tlemen  of  the  law.  The  body  was  carried  from  the  hearse  on  men's 
shoulders  into  the  church,  which  was  illuminated.  A  similar  display 
was  made  at  the  funeral  of  Sir  Henry  Moore,  who  died  in  the  year 
1768.  It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  such  lavish  expenditure  pro 
duced  a  reaction,  and  combined  efforts  for  reform.  In  all  the  col- 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  339 

onies  pompous  funerals  were  the  custom,  and  the  reform  movement 
seems  to  have  met  with  a  general  acceptance;  but  in  New  York  it 
had  apparently  little  effect,  and  the  custom  died  by  the  slow  process 
of  changing  manners.  The  peculiar  and  extreme  extravagance  of 
New  York,  and  the  endurance  of  the  custom,  are  due  to  the  Dutch, 
who  went  far  beyond  the  English  in  this  matter,  and  to  whom  such 
an  excess  of  cost  and  parade  was  indeed  peculiar.1 

It  only  remains  to  describe  briefly  the  character  of  New  York  poli 
tics,  which  differed  very  much  in  some  respects  from  those  of  any 
other  colony.  Local  politics  were  carried  on  with  great  zeal,  and  a 
good  deal  of  bitter  feeling  and  popular  excitement ;  so  much  so  that 
elections  for  the  Assembly  caused  a  general  stoppage  of  business.  For 
a  week  the  candidates  kept  open  house  and  feasted  their  supporters, 
and  on  election  day  bands  of  drunken  electors  patrolled  the  city,  and 
stopped  at  every  house  to  demand  votes.  The  character  of  the  provin 
cial  politics  was  but  a  part  of  the  broader  questions  connected  with 
the  relations  to  the  mother  country.  These  were  discussed  and  fought 
over  with  a  degree  of  virulence  peculiar  to  New  York,  and  due  not 
only  to  the  bad  quality  of  the  administration,  but  still  more  to  the  fact 
that  here,  and  here  alone,  the  territory  had  been  settled  and  possessed 
by  one  nation  and  conquered  by  another.  From  the  time  of  Andros 
and  Cornbury,  and  their  oppressive  rule,  there  was  always  a  vigorous 
resistance  to  the  imperial  government ;  and  there  were  also,  of  course, 
the  usual  grievances  against  England  here  as  elsewhere.  In  Bello- 
mont's  time  the  sheriffs  could  not  be  depended  upon  to  seize  smuggled 
goods,  and  the  English  navigation  laws  caused  intense  ill-feeling  among 
a  people  so  absorbed  in  foreign  commerce.  Impressment  was  another 
sore  point;  and  in  the  year  1744  fishermen,  who  had  suffered  from 
the  press-gang,  burnt  the  boats  of  an  English  man-of-war  on  the 
beach.  These  particular  grievances  were,  however,  merely  indications 
of  a  general  feeling.  The  ill-advised  Church  policy  caused  a  continu 
ous  struggle  between  the  dissenting  sects  and  the  government;  and 
in  the  years  preceding  the  Revolution  the  letters  of  the  Governors  are 
filled  with  complaints  of  the  opposition  —  invariably  styled  a  "fac 
tion."  Clinton  wrote  to  the  Duke  of  Newcastle  that  the  people 
caught  at  everything  to  lessen  the  prerogative;  and  again,  in  1747, 

1  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  iv.,  Smith,  p.  278  and  if.,  De  Lancey  Funeral;  History  of  Troy, 
Weise ;  Munsell's  Annals,  i.,  Judge  Benson's  Address ;  Stiles's  Brooklyn ;  Watson, 
Historic  Tales ;  Furman's  Antiquities  of  Long  Island. 


340  HISTORY  OF  THE 

that  the  Stamp  Act  proposed  by  Clarke  was  an  unwise  measure,  and 
would  encounter  universal  resistance.  There  were  in  reality  three 
parties.  The  English  officials  and  the  wealthy  Dutch  merchants  in 
New  York  were  very  loyal ;  they  drank  the  King's  health  on  all  oc 
casions,  listened  to  sermons,  draped  their  churches  in  mourning  when 
the  Prince  of  Wales  died,  and,  in  17YO,  had  great  feasting  and  grand 
processions  in  honor  of  the  erection  of  George  the  Third's  statue, 
destined  at  an  early  day  to  be  run  into  Revolutionary  bullets.  At 
the  other  extreme  were  the  young  men  of  English  race,  who  pub 
lished  the  Independent  Reflector,  and  founded  the  Whig  Club,  where, 
in  the  words  of  the  Tory  historian,  the  New  England  spirit  was  ram 
pant,  Cromwell  and  Hampden  were  toasted,  hatred  sworn  to  kings 
and  bishops,  and  a  constant  agitation  kept  up  against  the  govern 
ment.  Between  these  two  extreme  parties  was  the  great  mass  of 
the  people,  the  Dutch  farmers  and  foreign  settlers,  and  some  of  the 
great  manorial  proprietors,  who  returned  popular  candidates  to  the 
Assembly.  This  third  party  was  either  lukewarm  in  their  loyalty 
or  positively  indifferent,  and  could  offer  no  opposition  to  any  ac 
tive  faction  ready  to  take  a  decisive  and  aggressive  attitude.1  With 
these  factious  and  bitter  politics  and  strong  party  feelings,  New  York 
was  swept  easily  into  the  Revolutionary  current,  and  at  the  same  time 
produced  a  Tory  party  of  almost  unequalled  violence  and  activity. 

Thus  we  come  to  the  end  of  the  middle  group.  In  the  south  is 
found  the  Virginian  influence  acting  upon  Delaware  and  Pennsylva 
nia,  and  gradually  disappearing  until  it  vanishes  entirely,  and  New 
York  is  reached  wholly  free  from  Virginian  ideas,  but  strongly  tinged 
with  those  of  the  compact  and  strongly  marked  English  communities 
to  the  eastward.  From  New  York  we  pass  out  of  the  region  which 
held  the  balance  of  power,  and  come  in  contact  with  the  other  great 
social  and  political  force  which  battled  with  that  of  Virginia  for  mas 
tery  in  the  coming  nation. 

1  American  Lady,  ii.,  231  and  ff. ;  Kalm,  i.,  264 ;  Hist.  Coll.,  iii.,  Extracts  from 
Newspapers;  MunselPs  Annals,  x.,  1742;  De  Voe's  Markets  of  New  York;  Doc. 
relating  to  Col.  Hist,  of  New  York,  iv.,  vi.,  Letters  of  Governors ;  Watson,  Historic 
Tales ;  Jones,  Hist,  of  New  York  in  Revolution. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  341 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

MASSACHUSETTS  FROM  1620  TO  1765. 

FROM  the  Norsemen  to  John  Smith  none  of  the  early  and  dar 
ing  discoverers  and  adventurers,  if  we  except  the  remnants  of  the 
Popham  colonists,  succeeded  in  gaining  a  permanent  foothold  on  the 
repellent  shores  of  New  England.  The  history  of  Massachusetts  be 
gins  in  an  obscure  Lincolnshire  village,  among  a  company  of  plain 
farmers  and  simple  rustics,  who  had  separated  from  the  Church  of 
England,  and  paid  for  their  temerity  by  bitter  and  unceasing  per- 
1608  secuti°n-  kife  became  intolerable,  and  they  resolved  to  fly. 
Hunted  even  to  the  water's  edge,  they  at  last  assembled  at 
Amsterdam,  where  they  were  free  and  safe,  and  could  worship  God 
as  they  pleased.  From  Amsterdam  they  removed  to  Leyden,  sup 
porting  themselves  in  both  cities  by  the  work  of  their  own  hands ; 
but  though  they  had  religions  freedom,  the  race  feeling  and  the 
love  of  England  was  strong  within  them.  They  could  not  bear  to 
live  under  foreign  rule,  and  watch  their  children  grow  up  and  enter 
foreign  service,  and  fall  away  from  the  faith  of  their  fathers ;  so  their 
thoughts  turned  to  the  New  World,  where  surely  there  would  be  room, 
perhaps  even  an  obscure  corner  of  the  vast  possessions  of  the  Brit 
ish  Crown  in  which  they  could  find  rest  and  peace.  After  prolonged 
negotiations  and  many  disappointments,  a  patent  was  at  last  obtain 
ed  ;  money  was  raised  by  London  merchants,  who  acquired  a  mortgage 
in  this  way  on  the  colony  and  its  inhabitants,  and  a  chosen 
band  sailed  from  Delfthaven  in  the  Speedwell,  and  joined  the 
Mayflower  at  Southampton.  Twice  they  started  and  twice  they  put 
back,  first  to  Dartmouth  and  then  to  Plymouth ;  and  at  last  the  May 
flower  sailed  alone,  with  one  hundred  and  two  colonists.  These  men 
and  women  were  simple  rustics,  farmers  or  workmen.  The  leaders 
even  were  not,  with  one  or  two  exceptions,  men  of  any  marked  social 
position.  They  were  poor  and  friendless,  separatists  from  the  Church 
and  exiles  from  England ;  but  they  bore  with  them  the  seeds  of  a 


$42  HISTORY  OP  THE 

great  nation  and  of  a  great  system  of  government.     They  landed 
at  Cape  Cod,  and  there  founded  a  democratic  republic  by 
^1*620  *'  ^ne  famous  compact  of  the  Mayflower.     A  few  weeks  later 
they  landed  at  Plymouth,  the  vanguard  of  a  great  column, 
bearing  a  civilization  and  a  system  of  government  which  was  to  con 
front  that  other  system  founded  far  away  to  the  south  on  the 
'   rivers  of  Virginia,  and  which,  after  a  conflict  of  two  centu 
ries  and  a  half,  was  destined  to  prevail  throughout  the  length 
and  breadth  of  a  continent. 

I  do  not  propose  to  rehearse  the  history  of  that  memorable  settle 
ment  at  Plymouth.  "  It  has  all  been  told  and  painted,"  and  the  small 
est  details  of  the  whole  story  have  become  household  words.  There 
is  no  need  again  to  draw  the  picture  of  that  awful  winter  of  cold,  fam 
ine,  and  disease ;  and  of  the  little  company  slowly  perishing  on  the 
sandy  shores  of  Massachusetts  Bay.  There  is  no  need  to  repeat  the 
history  of  their  hopes  returning  with  the  spring,  of  the  successful  deal 
ings  with  the  Indians,  of  the  difficulties  at  Weymouth,  of  the  conten 
tions  with  the  genial  and  worthless  Morton,  and  of  the  dangers  from 
Gorges  and  from  England.  All  is  familiar,  all  are  details  trivial  in 
themselves,  but  made  grand  by  after  results,  and  set  down  at  the  time 
with  minute  care  by  men  like  Bradford,  who  seemed  to  have  an  in 
stinct  that  a  nation  would  one  day  long  to  know  their  struggles  for 
existence,  and  that  he  and  his  friends  were  laying  one  of  the  corner 
stones  of  a  great  empire.  Clinging  with  marvellous  tenacity  to  the 
barren  coast,  a  mere  handful  of  persistent  Englishmen,  the  Plymouth 
people  held  together.  They  bore  up  against  nature  and  the  savage, 
and  against  their  fellow-countrymen.  They  held  out  against  the  har 
assing  complaints  of  the  London  traders  who  had  bought  their  labor, 
and,  freeing  themselves  from  this  tyranny,  took  up  a  load  of  debt 
which  they  honestly  labored  to  discharge.  They  threw  out  trading- 
posts,  hunted,  farmed,  fished,  worked,  stayed,  and  struck  root.  The  col 
ony  grew  slowly,  and  its  humble  fortunes  prospered  in  a  small  fash 
ion  ;  but  it  did  its  work,  and  opened  the  way  and  marked  the  spot 
for  that  great  emigration  which  was  to  build  up  the  powerful  Puritan 
commonwealths  of  New  England. 

While  the  people  of  Plymouth  were  struggling  to  establish  their 
colony,  some  of  the  English  Puritans,  restless  under  the  growing  des 
potism  of  Charles,  began  to  turn  their  eyes  to  New  England. 
Under  the  lead  of  the  Rev.  John  White,  the  Dorchester  Com 
pany  was  formed  for  trading  and  fishing,  and  a  station  was  established 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  343 

at  Cape  Ann ;  but  the  enterprise  did  not  prosper,  the  colonists  were 
disorderly,  and  the  Company  made  an  arrangement  for  Roger  Conant 
and  others,  driven  from  Plymouth  by  the  rigid  principles  of  the  Sep 
aratists  to  come  to  Cape  Ann.  Still  matters  did  not  improve,  and 
the  Company  was  dissolved ;  but  White  held  to  his  purpose, 
and  Conant  and  a  few  others  moved  to  Naumkeag,  and  deter 
mined  to  settle  there.  Conant  induced  his  companions  to  persevere, 
and  matters  in  England  led  to  a  fresh  attempt,  for  discontent  grew 
rapidly  as  Charles  proceeded  in  his  policy.  A  second  Dorchester  Com 
pany,  not  this  time  a  small  affair  for  fishing  and  trading,  but  one 
backed  by  men  of  wealth  and  influence,  was  formed,  and  a  large  grant 
of  lands  was  made  by  the  Council  for  New  England  to  Sir 
Henry  Roswell  and  five  others.  One  of  the  six  patentees,  John 
Endicott,  went  out  during  the  following  summer  with  a  small  com 
pany,  assumed  the  government  at  Naumkeag,  which  was  now  called 
Salem,  and  sent  out  exploring  parties.  The  Company  thus  formed  in 
England  was  merely  a  voluntary  partnership,  but  it  paved  the  way  for 
another  and  much  larger  scheme.  Disaffection  had  become  wide-spread. 
The  Puritans  began  to  fear  that  religious  and  political  liberty  alike 
were  not  only  in  danger  but  were  doomed  to  destruction,  and  a  large 
portion  of  the  party  resolved  to  combine  for  the  preservation  of  all 
that  was  dearest  to  them  by  removal  to  the  New  World.  The 
Dorchester  Company  was  enlarged,  and  a  royal  charter  was  ob 
tained  incorporating  the  Governor  and  Company  of  Massachusetts  Bay. 
The  freemen  of  the  Company  were  to  meet  four  times  in  every  year ; 
they  could  choose  a  Governor,  deputy,  and  eighteen  assistants,  who 
were  to  meet  every  month ;  they  were  authorized  to  administer  oaths 
of  supremacy  and  allegiance,  admit  new  associates,  defend  themselves 
by  arms,  transport  settlers,  and  manage  in  every  way  their  own  affairs. 
Nothing  was  said  of  religious  liberty  ;  for  this  famous  instrument  was 
as  shrewdly  as  it  was  loosely  drawn.  Omit  the  word  Company,  and 
we  have  the  constitution  of  an  independent  state  with  very  ill -de 
fined  powers. 

The  new  scheme  once  started,  organization  proceeded  rapidly.  En 
dicott  was  made  local  Governor,  and  Matthew  Cradock  Governor  of 
the  Company ;  money  was  freely  subscribed,  and  six  vessels  with  em 
igrants,  supplies,  and  cattle,  under  the  charge  of  eminent  and  "god 
ly  "  ministers,  were  despatched  at  once  to  Massachusetts.  They  set 
tled  at  Salem,  established  a  church  by  mutual  covenant,  with  Skelton 
as  pastor  and  Higginson  as  teacher,  and  sent  out  men  to  prepare  for 


344  HISTORY  OF  THE 

another  settlement  at  Charlestown.  Everything  seems  to  have  been 
preconcerted.  There  was  no  obstruction  or  discussion,  and  at  every 
step,  and  especially  in  the  matter  of  the  Church,  we  see  the  develop 
ment  of  a  well-matured  plan.  But  these  men  were  not  separatists 
like  those  of  Plymouth.  They  were  members  of  the  Church  of  Eng 
land,  Puritans,  and  Reformers,  representing  a  large,  powerful,  and  ever- 
increasing  element  in  the  English  race,  and  they  had  behind  them  re 
ligious,  social,  and  political  forces  unknown  in  the  foundation  of  oth 
er  colonies.  They  established  an  independent  Church  at  Salem,  not 
because  they  wished  to  break  from  the  English  Church,  but  because 
they  desired  a  purified  Church,  and  under  the  circumstances  of  a  new 
country  they  were  compelled  to  construct  one  upon  a  new  and  self- 
sustaining  model.  To  this  course  of  action  two  of  the  counsellors 
at  Salem  objected ;  whereupon  Endicott  ordered  them  away,  and  they 
betook  themselves  to  England  with  their  complaints  of  separatism. 
The  Company  acted  cautiously,  but  it  was  clear  that  they  meant  to 
exercise  absolute  control,  and  exclude  opponents  from  their  domain. 
Meanwhile  events  moved  fast  in  England.  Charles  was  determined 
to  rule  arbitrarily  and  alone,  and  the  Puritans  took  the  next  step  in 
their  plan  of  colonization  by  resolving  to  remove  the  Company  and 
its  government  to  New  England.  Winthrop  was  chosen  Governor, 
and  Humphrey  deputy.  The  leaders  were  country  gentlemen,  mer 
chants,  and  soldiers,  men  of  wealth  and  position — while  the  bulk  of 
the  emigration  was,  as  a  rule,  from  the  farmers  and  yeomanry,  who 
were  people  of  substance.  It  was  the  migration  of  a  people,  not  the 
mere  setting  forth  of  colonists  and  adventurers.  The  trading  purposes 
of  the  corporation  soon  disappear,  we  can  see  the  whole  broad  scheme 
of  the  Puritan  leaders,  and  how,  under  the  disguise  of  a  trading  com 
pany  and  a  commercial  charter,  they  went  forth  to  found  a  State,  and 
erect  an  independent  government.  Those  of  the  Company  who  did 
not  go  to  America  remained  in  England  to  enter  the  Long  Parlia 
ment,  and  fight  in  the  civil  wars.  If  we  run  over  the  names  of  those 
connected  with  the  Massachusetts  Company  we  find  nearly  all  the 
leaders  of  the  Puritan  party,  the  magnitude  of  the  scheme  becomes 
apparent,  and  we  see  that  if  all  had  been  lost  in  England,  there  would 
in  a  few  years  have  sprung  up  in  America  a  great  Puritan  State,  pow 
erful  enough  to  have  defied  the  mother  country,  and  stood  out  as  her 
equal  at  the  very  outset.  As  it  was,  a  great  work  was  accomplished, 
and  the  party  which  raised  up  the  commonwealths  of  New  England 
with  one  hand  tore  down  the  Stuart  throne  with  the  other. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  345 

In  the  spring  of  1630  Winthrop  and  the  other  officers  and  leaders, 
having  published  an  address  to  their  brethren  in  England,  sail- 
ed  with  a  fleet  of  eleven  vessels ;  and  before  the  next  winter 
set  in  a  thousand  colonists  had  arrived.  Winthrop  found  the  colony 
at  Salem  languishing  from  hunger  and  sickness,  while  disease  and  ex 
posure  carried  off  some  of  his  own  company.  Attention  was  given 
at  once  to  choosing  a  new  site,  and  the  first  attempt  was  made  at 
Charlestown,  where  a  church  was  formed  on  the  independent  model 
of  Salem,  and  courts  of  assistants  were  held  to  punish  misdemeanors, 
and  provide  for  order  and  police  in  the  various  plantations.  The  lack 
of  good  water  drove  many  of  the  people  across  the  river  to  Boston, 
and  there  the  first  general  court  of  the  Company  was  held,  by  which 
almost  all  power  was  conferred  upon  the  assistants ;  but  as  there  were 
many  applications  for  admission  to  the  Company,  it  was  evident  that 
the  freemen  would  before  long  have  to  be  still  further  consulted.  It 
was  resolved  soon  after  to  build  a  fort  at  Boston,  and  then  Newtown, 
afterward  Cambridge,  was  selected  for  the  capital,  where  the  Govern 
or  and  assistants  agreed  to  build  houses.  The  winter  passed  heavily 
in  wretched  and  imperfect  shelters,  and  with  much  suffering. 

At  the  next  meeting  of  the  general  court,  when  the  first  elections 
were  held,  it  was  enacted  that  no  one  should  be  admitted  a 

1 631 

freeman,  and  so  have  the  right  to  vote,  unless  he  was  a  mem 
ber  of  one  of  the  churches  within  the  limits  of  the  colony.  Thus 
the  great  Puritan  theory  of  Church  and  State  united  in  one  organiza 
tion  was  fairly  put  in  practice.  One  hundred  and  eighteen  persons 
were  admitted  to  the  franchise,  a  general  court  was  ordered  to  be  held 
every  year,  and  the  assistants  were  to  hold  from  year  to  year  unless 
removed,  thus  concentrating  the  power  still  more  in  the  hands  of  the 
magistrates.  Winthrop  and  Dudley  were  continued  as  Governor  and 
Deputy,  the  capital  was  soon  after  finally  fixed  at  Boston,  and  the 
government  was  carried  on  in  practice  wholly  by  the  magistrates;  an 
absorption  which,  even  in  those  early  days  of  battle  for  existence, 
soon  provoked  opposition.  A  tax  was  laid  for  fortification,  and 
the  people  of  Watertown  refused  to  pay  their  share  for  fear 
of  "  bringing  themselves  and  posterity  into  bondage."  They  were  pac 
ified  by  Winthrop,  who  told  them  the  government  was  in  the  nature 
of  a  parliament,  and  that  all  the  assistants  were  elected.  This  oppo 
sition,  however,  bore  fruit  at  the  next  general  court,  where  the  free 
men  resumed  the  right  of  electing  Governor  and  Deputy,  choosing 
Winthrop  and  Dudley  again  to  those  positions ;  and  they  also  deter- 


346  HISTORY  OF  THE 

mined  that  two  delegates  should  be  chosen  from  every  plantation 
to  confer  with  the  assistants  about  raising  a  public  stock.  Thus  the 
foundation  of  a  Lower  House  was  laid,  and  true  representative  and 
parliamentary  government  begun.  Meantime,  a  church  had  been  start 
ed  at  Boston,  where  the  cabins  of  the  settlers  were  increasing,  and 
new  plantations  began  to  spring  up  on  the  shore  and  in  the  inte 
rior,  unmolested  by  savages,  who  had  been  swept  from  the  coast  by 
disease.  The  chief  enemy  was  in  poor  crops  and  scarcity  of  sup 
plies,  and  against  these  evils  the  colonists  battled  manfully.  Forts 
were  erected  to  protect  the  town  against  French  attacks  from  the 
north,  and  the  strongly-planted  settlement  was  firmly  rooted  in  the 
new  soil. 

The  accession  of  Laud  to  the  primacy  gave  a  fresh  start  to  the  tide 
of  emigration,  which  brought  out  this  year  Hooker,  who  set 
tled  at  Newtown,  and  the  famous  John  Cotton,  who  remained 
at  Boston.  This  renewed  emigration,  indeed,  assumed  such  propor 
tions  as  to  attract  attention  in  England,  for  in  the  previous  year  the 
various  persons  who  had  been  driven  from  the  colony,  backed  by 
Gorges  and  Mason,  who  were  jealous  of  their  eastern  grants,  had  ac 
cused  the  people  of  Massachusetts  of  intending  rebellion  and  inde 
pendence.  The  first  attack  was  warded  off ;  but  when  suspicion  was 
again  awakened,  the  detention  of  emigrant  ships  was  ordered,  and 
Cradock  was  commanded  to  appear  and  produce  the  charter.  Then  it 
was  known  that  the  charter  had  gone  to  America,  and  the  roy 
al  government  was  aroused  to  a  sense  of  what  had  happened. 
While  danger  was  preparing  at  home  the  colony  had  grown  to  three 
or  four  thousand  inhabitants,  distributed  in  sixteen  towns.  All  the 
freemen  could  not  assemble,  but  their  representatives  did,  and  pro 
ceeded  to  do  much  more  than  advise  as  to  "raising  public  stock." 
They  took  all  power  into  their  hands,  chose  Dudley  Governor,  to  show 
that  no  office  was  a  freehold,  rebuked  the  assistants,  admitted  free 
men,  passed  laws,  and  administered  oaths  of  allegiance,  not  to  the  king 
but  to  the  government  of  the  colony ;  and  so  after  three  days  quietly 
adjourned,  making  provision  for  the  future  choice  of  deputies  from 
the  towns.  Representative  democracy  was  fairly  established,  and  the 
Puritan  system  of  a  united  Church  and  State  was  on  trial. 

Trade  began,  and  adventurers  made  their  way  to  the  Connecticut 
and  sailed  along  the  Sound  to  New  York,  while  farms  were  opened 
and  tilled,  cattle  raised,  and  population  rapidly  increased.  The  State 
was  created,  and  it  was  now  necessary  to  maintain  it  against  attacks 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  347 

in  England  and  dissensions  at  home.  The  latter  they  had  guarded 
against  by  banishing  disaffected  persons ;  the  former  they  met  boldly 
and  wisely.  Mr.  Cradock  sent  a  copy  of  the  order  requiring  a  pro 
duction  of  the  patent,  and  the  assistants  laid  it  on  the  table,  and  de 
clined  to  act  without  authority  from  the  general  court.  When  the 
court  met  it  was  known  that  a  royal  commission  for  the  case  of  the 
colonies  had  been  organized,  and  that  a  Governor-general  was  to  be 
appointed.  The  court  ordered  new  forts  to  be  built,  and  the  people 
to  be  trained  in  arms ;  while  Dudley,  Winthrop,  and  three  others  were 
appointed  to  manage  any  war  that  might  befall ;  and  the  ministers  soon 
after  were  called  to  advise  with  the  assistants,  when  it  was  resolved 
that  they  would  not  accept  a  general  Governor,  but  defend  their  lawful 
possessions.  At  the  next  general  court  farther  steps  were  taken 
to  fortify  the  towns,  erect  beacons,  arm  and  discipline  soldiers, 
and  a  military  commission  was  appointed  with  extraordinary  powers. 
This  was  the  answer  of  Massachusetts  to  the  demands  of  England. 
Emigration  was  prohibited  by  the  royal  commission,  the  Council  for 
New  England  divided  its  property  among  twelve  associates,  and  re 
signed  its  charter,  and  a  quo  warranto  was  brought  by  the  attorney- 
general  against  the  Massachusetts  Company.  Judgment  was  given 
against  Sir  Henry  Roswell  and  others  of  the  original  patentees,  and  it 
looked  as  if  the  end,  so  far  as  the  law  could  go,  was  near ;  but  Mas 
sachusetts  disregarded  all  this,  and  events  favored  the  colony,  for  ship- 
money  and  "  prelatizing "  absorbed  public  attention  in  England,  and 
their  most  energetic  opponent,  Mason,  died.  While  thus  facing  this 
perilous  attack  from  abroad,  the  colony  had  also  to  confront  their  first 
serious  opposition  at  home.  Some  years  before  Roger  Williams  had 
come  to  the  colony,  and  got  into  trouble  by  refusing  to  join  the  con 
gregation  at  Boston,  because  they  would  not  publicly  repent  having  had 
communion  with  the  English  Church,  and  he  also  denied  the  right  of 
magistrates  to  punish  for  breaches  of  the  Sabbath,  and  of  the  first  table 
of  the  Decalogue.  Despite  the  remonstrances  of  the  assistants,  he  was 
chosen  teacher  of  the  Salem  Church ;  and  then  for  a  time  he  lived  at 
Plymouth,  where  he  published  a  treatise  impugning  the  right  of  Massa 
chusetts  to  her  land  under  the  King's  grant.  This  was  laid  before  the 
magistrates ;  Williams  made  submission,  and  the  treatise  was  burned. 
This  was  after  his  return  to  Salem,  where  he  soon  raised  a  ferment  by 
denouncing  women  for  going  unveiled,  and  by  inciting  Endicott  to 
cut  the  cross  from  the  flag;  but  he  was  nevertheless  chosen  preacher  in 
spite  of  the  protests  of  the  magistrate.  He  was  soon  in  trouble  again 


348  HISTORY  OF  THE 

for  preaching  against  the  King's  patent,  and  yet  again  for  denying  the 
right  to  administer  an  oath  to  the  unregenerate.  He  was  heard  before 
the  ministers,  the  quarrel  extended  to-  Salem  arid  the  Salem  Church, 
and  at  last  the  general  court  took  hold  of  it,  and  ordered  Williams  to 
leave  the  colony  within  six  weeks.  The  time  was  extended  to  the  fol 
lowing  spring;  but  Williams  kept  up  the  disturbance  at  Salem, 
and  the  magistrates  determined  to  send  him  to  England.  He 
heard  of  the  danger,  and  fled  into  the  wilderness.  The  whole  matter 
was  a  mere  question  of  policy,  and  not  at  all  of  religious  liberty.  Wil 
liams  attacked  the  right  of  the  colonists  to  their  land ;  he  denied  the 
powers  of  the  magistrate  to  enforce  the  laws ;  he  struck  at  allegiance 
to  the  government ;  he  strove  to  encourage  a  policy  which  would  still 
further  inflame  the  King,  and  embitter  their  relations  with  England ; 
he  stirred  up  disorder  and  dissension — and  all  this  was  done  in  a 
time  of  trial  and  extreme  danger  from  abroad.  That  ut  this  day  he 
could  have  done  and  said  all  he  did  unmolested,  is  probable ;  but  even 
now  in  time  of  war  such  a  man  would  be  regarded  with  suspicion. 
Under  the  circumstances  of  the  time  and  place,  he  was  dangerous 
to  the  State ;  the  magistrates  had  the  right  to  turn  him  out,  and  they 
acted  strongly  and  wisely  in  doing  so.  Others  were  wiser  than  he, 
submitted  to  punishment,  and  gave  way.  Endicott  was  called  to  ac 
count  for  cutting  the  cross,  was  relegated  to  private  life,  and  finally 
disfranchised  for  a  year;  while  Israel  Stoughton  was  disabled  from 
office  for  denying  the  power  of  the  magistrates. 

The  commonwealth,  for  such  it  had  come  to  be,  was  growing  and 
strengthening.  Courts  had  been  established,  and  churches  and  towns 
ordered  and  regulated  on  a  uniform  model ;  and  in  the  memorable 
year  which  opened  with  conflict  at  home  and  abroad  the  Puritans 
founded  Harvard  College.  The  previous  year  had  brought  to  the  col 
ony,  besides  an  increasing  emigration,  the  younger  Winthrop,  bearing 
a  commission  from  Lord  Say-and-Sele,  Lord  Brooke,  and  their  asso 
ciates,  patentees  of  Connecticut.  A  movement  had  been  begun  in  that 
direction  some  two  years  before,  and  had  been  thwarted  by  the  persist 
ent  opposition  of  the  magistrates;  but,  after  much  controversy,  it  was 
found  impossible  to  check  the  migration,  and  Hooker  had  gone  thither 
with  a  large  company.  Arrangements  were  made  with  these  settlers, 
and  with  those  from  Plymouth  who  preceded  them,  the  new  colonies 
were  fairly  started,  and  soon  freed  themselves  from  the  protecting  rule 
of  Massachusetts. 

With  the  younger  Winthrop  came  two  men  who  played  a  great 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  349 

part  in  the  troubled  times  of  the  Rebellion — the  younger  Vane  and 
Hugh  Peter — who  at  once  mixed  themselves  up  in  politics,  undertook 
to  revise  the  administration,  heal  the  feud  between  the  elder  Winthrop 
and  Dudley,  and,  in  concurrence  with  the  ministers,  enforce  greater 
strictness  in  every  department  of  the  State.  Carried  away  by  the 
glamour  of  his  position  and  by  the  brilliancy  of  his  talents,  the 
freemen  chose  Vane  Governor  at  the  next  general  court,  thus  doing 
all  in  their  power  to  increase  the  confusion  of  the  stormiest  and 
most  perilous  year  in  the  early  history  of  the  colony.  Vane's  first 
act  was  to  get  a  royal  flag  from  one  of  the  ships,  which,  with  his 
assent,  was  displayed  at  the  fort.  A  committee  was  raised,  also,  to  re 
vise  the  laws.  But  graver  matters  than  these  pressed  upon  the  col 
ony  ;  trouble  was  brewing  with  the  Indians,  there  were  fights  with 
traders,  and  murders,  and,  finally,  Endicott  was  sent  out  with  three 
ships  and  a  body  of  soldiers.  He  ravaged  Block  Island,  which  only  en 
raged  the  Pequods  without  terrifying  them ;  so  they  began  to  destroy 
outlying  settlements,  and  Connecticut  seemed  doomed  to  destruction. 
But  the  little  settlements  raised  men,  and  applied  to  Massachusetts 
and  Plymouth  for  aid.  Soldiers  came,  and  the  united  forces,  under 
Mason  and  Underbill,  surrounded  the  chief  Pequod  town,  stormed 
the  ramparts,  fired  the  wigwams,  and  put  to  the  sword,  without  re 
gard  to  age  or  sex,  some  seven  hundred  of  the  savages.  The  rest  of 
the  tribe  were  attacked  on  their  retreat,  and  only  a  handful  finally  es 
caped  to  New  York.  The  work  was  done  in  true  Puritan  fashion  ;  the 
Pequod  tribe  was  literally  exterminated,  and  the  "  land  had  rest  forty 
years."  But  while  the  strain  of  savage  war  was  upon  them,  while 
their  soldiers  were  marching  southward  to  join  the  men  of  Connecti 
cut,  troubles  had  broken  out  at  Boston,  which  arose  from  the  actions 
and  sayings  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  an  active,  energetic,  uneasy  woman, 
who  had  followed  Cotton  to  America  some  years  before.  Her  broth 
er-in-law,  Wheelwright,  soon  settled  at  Mount  Wollaston,  was  her  chief 
ally,  and  Mrs.  Hutchinson  herself  propounded  various  doctrines  which 
were  at  variance  with  those  generally  accepted.  She  held  lectures  for 
women,  and  assailed  the  ministers — especially  Wilson,  of  the  Boston 
church  —  accusing  them  of  being  under  a  covenant  of  works,  not 
of  grace,  and  satirizing  their  sermons.  Loud  and  bitter  controversies 
sprang  up.  Mrs.  Hutchinson  obtained  the  powerful  support  of  Vane, 
and  of  Dummer  and  Coddington  ;  and,  to  a  certain  extent,  of  Cotton. 
Boston  was  in  a  ferment  of  excitement.  Wilson,  the  pastor  of  the 
Boston  church,  where  the  Hutchinsonians  were  in  the  majority,  was 


350  HISTORY  OF  THE 

attacked  and  censured  ;  and  at  the  next  meeting  of  the  court  the 
ministers  also  assembled,  and  a  fast  was  ordered.  The  ministers  de 
cided  in  conclave  that  for  heresy  and  error  the  court  might  proceed 
without  tarrying  for  the  Church ;  and  thereupon  Wheelwright,  for  a 
sermon  preached  during  the  fast,  was  adjudged  guilty  of  sedition  by 
the  court,  although  the  Governor,  some  members  of  the  House,  and 
the  people  of  Boston  protested.  The  next  court  for  general  elec 
tions  was  held  in  the  open  air  at  Newtown,  where  Winthrop  and  Dud 
ley  were  chosen  Governor  and  Deputy,  and  the  Hutchinsonians  were 
left  off  the  board  of  assistants.  After  a  scene  of  great  violence,  the 
old  party,  backed  by-  the  ministers  and  the  country  members,  prevail 
ed.  Vane  behaved  petulantly  and  angrily,  and,  after  some  further 
controversy  with  Winthrop,  left  the  country  forever.  The  sentence 
of  Wheelwright  was  deferred ;  a  synod  of  ministers  was  held,  eighty- 
two  points  of  doctrine  held  by  members  of  the  Hutchinsonian  par 
ty  were  condemned,  and  it  looked  as  if  peace  would  return  without 
resort  to  stronger  measures.  But  in  the  autumn  the  controversy 
broke  out  once  more  ;  Wheelwright's  sermon  was  again  called  in 
question,  and,  as  its  author  was  contumacious,  he  was  disfranchised 
and  banished,  and  soon  after  betook  himself  to  the  Piscataqua.  Mrs. 
Hutchinson  was  then  sent  for,  and,  after  a  stormy  trial  and  fierce  al 
tercations,  was  likewise  sentenced  to  banishment,  and  during  the  win 
ter  confined  in  her  house,  where  she  was  visited  by  the  clergy,  and 
gradually  retracted  her  doctrines,  but  asserted  that  much  had  been 
falsely  attributed  to  her.  This  led  to  fresh  controversy ;  the  govern 
ment  finally  interfered,  a  warrant  was  issued  for  her  expulsion 
from  the  jurisdiction,  and  she  departed  to  Rhode  Island.  Some 
of  her  sympathizers  followed  her,  some  were  disarmed  and  banished, 
but  most  of  them  recanted  and  made  submission.  The  case  of  Roger 
Williams  was  political ;  that  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson  was  both  political  and 
religious.  Her  peculiar  doctrines  and  her  sharp  criticisms  aroused  the 
undying  hostility  of  the  clergy,  the  most  powerful  class  in  the  commu 
nity  ;  while  the  action  of  Vane  and  his  friends  associated  her  with  the 
opposition  to  the  old  leaders.  An  attack  upon  the  Church,  in  a  com 
munity  where  Church  and  State  were  identical,  was  an  attack  upon 
the  State ;  and  the  fierce  dissension  which  she  caused  was  a  source  of 
danger  to  a  colony  in  perpetual  peril  from  English  foes.  The  govern 
ment  drove  her  from  their  jurisdiction — as  they  had  a  perfect  right  to 
do — because  the  clergy  hated  her,  and  because  they  believed  the  safe 
ty  of  the  State  required  it.  There  is  no  doubt  that  it  was  a  vigorous 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  351 

and  arbitrary  suppression  of  freedom  of  speech  and  opinion,  and  the 
only  question  is  whether,  politically,  and  as  a  matter  of  expediency, 
the  government's  high-handed  measures  were  justified  by  circum 
stances.  No  one  who  looks  at  the  matter  from  the  point  of  view 
of  the  year  1637,  and  not  from  that  of  the  nineteenth  century,  can 
hesitate  in  answering  the  question  in  the  affirmative.  The  strong  pol 
icy  of  repression,  at  all  events,  answered  its  purpose,  and  peace,  quiet, 
and  safety  were  restored.  The  colony  prospered,  legislation  was  im 
proved,  and  courts  extended ;  while  three  thousand  additional  settlers 
arrived.  Another  demand  for  the  charter  was  made  in  peremptory 
terms,  and,  after  a  long  pause,  the  court  sent  to  the  Commissioners  of 
Trade  a  firm  although  diplomatic  refusal  by  the  hand  of  Winthrop ; 
but  the  Scots  were  arming,  and  the  matter  rested  for  the  time. 

Events  in  England  had  now  reached  a  crisis,  and  the  Puritan  party, 
rising  rapidly  into  power,  no  longer  looked  to  America  for  a 
refuge.     The  great  tide  of  emigration  ceased  to  flow ;  but  the 
government  of  Massachusetts  went  on  wisely  and  strongly  under  the 
alternating  rule  of  Winthrop,  Dudley,  and  Bellingham.     The  English 
troubles  crippled  the  holders  of  the  Mason  and  Gorges  grants,  and 
the  settlements  in  New  Hampshire — whither  Wheelwright  had  gone, 
and  where  turbulence  had  reigned — were  gradually  added  to  the  ju 
risdiction   of  Massachusetts.      In  domestic  matters   everything  went 
smoothly.     There  was   some   trouble  with  Bellingham,  and 
Winthrop  was  again  made  Governor.     The  oath  of  allegiance 
to  the  King  taken  by  the  magistrates  was  abandoned,  because  Charles 
violated  the  privileges  of  Parliament,  and  the  last  vestige  of  depend 
ence  vanished.     Massachusetts  was  divided  into  counties ;  and  out  of 
a  ludicrous  contest  about  a  stray  pig,  in  which  deputies  and  magis 
trates  took  different  sides,  grew  a  very  important  controversy  as.  to 
the  powers  of  deputies  and  assistants,  which  resulted  in  the  di 
vision  of  the  legislature  into  two  branches,  and  a  consequent 
improvement  in  the  symmetry  and  solidity  of  the  political  system, 
A  short  time  before  a  far  more  important  event  had  occurred,  whet 
the  first  attempt  was  made  at  the  Federal  system,  which  more  than  a 
century  later  became  the  central  principle  in  the  formation  of  the 
United  States.     Dangers  from  the  Dutch  and  the  Indians  had  almost 
at  the  outset  convinced  Connecticut  and  New  Haven  that  some  union 
of  the  English  was  necessary.     Massachusetts  was  lukewarm ;  but  at 
last  commissioners  from  Connecticut,  Plymouth,  and  New  Haven  came 
to  Boston,  and  a  New  England  Confederation  was  formed.    This  con- 


852  HISTORY  OF  THE 

federacy,  which  excluded  Rhode  Island  and  the  Gorges  settlements  in 
Maine,  and  was  styled  the  United  Colonies  of  New  England,  provided 
for  little  more  than  an  alliance  offensive  and  defensive,  with  powers 
to  make  war  and  peace ;  but  it  had  a  marked  effect  on  the  people 
of  New  England — greatly  increased  their  power,  and  showed  even  in 
those  early  days  the  path  by  which  a  great  nation  was  to  be  formed 
from  jarring  States. 

The  confederacy  thus  established  had  at  once  enough  to  do.  They 
remonstrated  wkh  the  Swedes  on  the  Delaware,  who  had  interfered 
with  traders  from  New  Haven,  and  checked  the  Dutch  disposition  to 
interfere  in  Connecticut ;  while  Massachusetts  herself  dealt  with  the 
troubles  arising  between  D'Aulnay  and  La  Tour  in  their  conflict  for 
the  governorship  of  Acadia.  The  Bay  colonists  would  not  interfere 
actively,  but  they  took  advantage  of  the  situation  to  open  trade  with 
the  French  settlements,  and  suffered  La  Tour  to  enlist  men  in  Boston. 
This  led  to  serious  political  differences,  the  commissioners  of  the  con 
federacy  thought  Massachusetts  had  gone  too  far,  and  at  the  next 
election  Winthrop  was  displaced,  and  Endicott  chosen  in  his  stead. 
The  opposition  to  Winthrop  and  his  party  took  a  still  more  marked 
form  in  Essex  County,  where  a  combined  effort  was  made  to  get  con 
trol  of  the  government,  and  break  down  the  power  of  the  magistrates, 
an  attempt  which  resulted  in  failure.  Massachusetts  carried  the  same 
independence  into  her  dealings  with  King  and  Parliament  as  with  the 
conflicting  Frenchmen.  She  forbade  any  attempt  to  draw  together  a 
party  for  the  King,  and  although  she  permitted  a  commissioned  ship 
to  make  a  prize  in  the  harbor,  she  stopped  privateering  there  in  the 
interest  of  Parliament.  The  people  were  also  called  upon  to  deal 
with  an  attempt  to  introduce  Presbyterianism,  and  break  down  the 

religious  franchise.    A  synod  was  called,  but  nothing  was  done ; 

and  soon  after  the  general  court,  finding  that  the  petitioners 
were  about  to  carry  their  cause  to  England,  arrested  them,  seized  their 
papers,  and  fined  them.  When  the  remonstrants  did  reach  England 
the  Presbyterians  were  no  longer  all-powerful,  and  a  second  synod 

firmly  established  in  Massachusetts  the  Congregational  system 

of  independent  churches.  At  the  same  time  a  strong  effort 
was  made  for  the  work  of  converting  the  Indians,  and  aid  obtained  in 
England,  although  the  colonists  proceeded  in  all  other  matters  with 
their  customary  independence.  Meantime,  the  confederacy  concluded 
a  treaty  with  D'Aulnay,  who  had  finally  got  the  upperhand  in  Acadia, 
brought  Stuy vesant  to  terms  by  threatening  retaliation  for  his  seizures 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  353 

of  vessels  in  English  waters,  and,  after  much  trouble,  reduced  to  obedi 
ence  the  Narragan  setts,  who  had  been  restless  and  dangerous.     In  the 
confederacy  itself  everything  did  not  proceed  harmoniously.     The  at 
tempt  of  Connecticut  to  levy  a  duty  on  ships  at  Saybrook  was  sup 
ported  by  Plymouth  and  New  Haven,  and  warmly  contested  by  Mas 
sachusetts  even  to  the  point  of  retaliation  and  a  demand  for 
the  revision  of  the  articles.     In  Massachusetts  itself  the  party 
of  Winthrop  and  Dudley  again  became  supreme,  the  laws  were  re 
vised,  the  revenue  adjusted,  and  a  system  of  common  schools  estab 
lished  at  the  expense  of  the  towns.     Two  years  afterward 
Winthrop  died,  and  was   succeeded  by  Endicott,  who,  with 
two  intervals  of  a  year  each,  held  the  office  of  Governor  for  the  next 
fifteen  years. 

The  years  immediately  succeeding  the  death  of  Winthrop  were 
years  of  growth  and  prosperity,  and  of  a  still  further  development  of 
independence.  Massachusetts  spread  her  jurisdiction  to  the 
south,  and,  in  the  north-east,  obtained  possession  of  Maine, 
while  her  population  and  trade  alike  increased.  With  the  new  pow 
ers  in  England  she  pursued  the  same  wary  and  firm  policy  that  she 
had  employed  with  Charles.  After  much  deliberation  she  denied  the 
right  of  Parliament  to  meddle  with  her  charter,  and  took  upon  herself 
another  attribute  of  sovereignty  by  coining  money.  She  refused  to 
enter  into  Cromwell's  scheme  of  transporting  the  colonists  to  Ireland, 
and,  later  still,  a  similar  and  more  cherished  plan  in  regard  to  Jamaica. 
In  the  confederacy  a  like  cautious  policy  was  adopted.  An  alliance 
with  New  France  was  declined;  but  in  the  relations  with  the  Dutch 
there  was  more  difficulty  and  grave  dissensions ;  for  after  protracted 
negotiations  the  other  colonies  pressed  eagerly  for  war  against  their 
neighbors,  and  Massachusetts  as  steadily  refused.  The  contest  came 
near  causing  a  rupture  of  the  confederation,  and  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  Massachusetts  dominated  the  confederacy  by  her  superior 
strength  without  much  regard  to  the  articles  of  union.  She  succeed 
ed  in  her  wishes,  however,  and  prevented  a  resort  to  force ;  and,  in  a 
similar  fashion,  stopped  a  war  which  was  much  urged  with  the  Nyan- 
tics.  Even  Cromwell's  fleet  could  not  tempt  them,  and  peace  finally 
removed  the  danger  before  hostilities  actually  occurred.  With  Crom 
well  himself  Massachusetts  practically  maintained  the  relations  of  an 
independent  State.  She  did  not  proclaim  him ;  and  when  a  letter 
came  from  the  Council  of  State  ordering  them  to  proclaim  his  son 
Richard,  it  was  passed  by  without  notice.  In  a  like  manner  they 

23 


354  HISTORY  OF  THE 

remained  for  three  months  silent  as  to  the  restoration  of  Charles, 
and  then  news  came  from  their  agent  that  their  affairs  had 
been  brought  before  the  King,  and  that  complaints  had  been 
made  against  them  ;  whereupon  a  special  court  was  convened,  and  ad 
dresses  to  the  King  and  Parliament,  full  of  compliment,  and  praying 
for  favor,  were  despatched. 

The  complaints  against  the  colony  came  from  two  sources — the 
eastern  proprietors,  whose  territory  had  been  absorbed,  and  from  the 
Quakers.  The  wild  fanatics  of  this  famous  sect  had  selected  New 
England  as  a  promising  field,  and  some  of  them  appeared  in  1656  at 
Boston,  where  they  were  seized,  and  at  once  sent  back  on  the  ships 
which  brought  them.  Then  came  sharp  laws  providing  for  whipping, 
mutilation,  banishment,  and  death  if  they  returned  after  being  driven 
away.  The  Quakers  were  drunk  with  religious  zeal,  and  came  a  few 
at  a  time,  but  did  little  in  the  way  of  conversion.  They  appeared 
naked  in  the  streets  and  churches,  hideous  with  grease  and  lamp-black 
— breaking  bottles,  and  raising  a  riot  and  disturbance  everywhere. 
The  magistrates  began  with  whipping  and  mutilation.  Then  the 
Quakers  were  banished,  and  came  back  to  test  the  law.  Two  men 
were  hung  in  Boston,  and  a  woman  and  a  man  not  long  after ;  and 
then  the  rising  popular  indignation  prevailed,  the  law  was  modified, 
and,  although  the  Quakers  were  punished  from  time  to  time,  they 
had  won  their  victory.  The  magistrates,  headed  by  the  fiery  Endi- 
cott  and  by  Bellingham,  and  backed  by  the  Federal  commissioners, 
had  taken  the  ground  that  Massachusetts  belonged  absolutely  to  its 
people,  and  that  they  had  the  right  now,  as  in  the  early  days,  to 
put  down  opposition  and  banish  all  malcontents.  This  policy  had 
already  been  successful  with  Williams,  Gorton,  and  Mrs.  Hutchinson, 
as  well  as  with  smaller  offenders.  The  theory  was  correct  enough ; 
the  difficulty  was  that  times  had  changed,  and  the  people  no  longer 
were  ready  to  put  the  theory  into  practice.  Absolute  intolerance,  sus 
tained  by  capital  punishment,  was  no  longer  possible  in  New  Eng 
land  ;  and  the  first  desperate  fanatic  who  was  eager  to  die  was  able 
to  put  it  down.  The  Quakers  made  their  way  into  Massachusetts ; 
and  the  Baptists,  who  were  at  first  arrested  and  dispersed,  not  long 
after  obtained  a  tacit  recognition ;  while  the  question  of  baptism  be 
came  a  subject  of  heated  controversy  in  the  churches  of  the  colony. 
It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  the  Quakers  complained  against 
Massachusetts  as  soon  as  they  found  any  one  to  listen ;  but 
the  King's  answer  to  the  address  of  the  general  court  was, 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  355 

nevertheless,  very  gracious.  It  came,  however,  in  company  with  an 
order  to  apprehend  the  exiles  Whalley  and  Goffe,  who  had  fled  from 
England,  and  had  been  kindly  received  at  Boston.  The  magistrates 
did  their  duty  in  the  premises  so  far  as  they  were  obliged  to,  and  the 
royal  messengers  scoured  New  England,  but  never  reached  the  regi 
cides.  The  government  then  proceeded  to  take  such  wary  steps  as 
they  could  to  win  favor  by  condemning  the  doctrines  of  the  Fifth 
Monarchy  men,  ordering  the  Governor  to  take  bonds  of  ships  under 
'the  Navigation  Act  never  before  enforced,  and  by  appointing  a  com 
mittee  who  reported  on  the  rights  of  the  colony,  and  admitted  the  duty 
of  allegiance  to  Charles.  Then,  after  fifteen  months'  delay,  Charles 
was  proclaimed.  They  disregarded  the  royal  mandamus  that  Quak 
ers  should  be  sent, to  England  for  trial,  but  modified  the 
laws,  and  still  inflicted  corporal  punishment.  They  further 
sent  Bradstreet  and  Norton  with  an  address  to  England,  where  they 
were  well  received,  and  whence  they  returned  with  another  royal  and 
gracious  answer,  which,  however,  demanded  the  oath  of  allegiance ; 
that  all  laws  in  derogation  of  royal  authority  should  be  repealed ; 
that  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  should  be  permitted  to  all  desir 
ing  to  use  it ;  that  the  religious  test  for  suffrage  should  be  abolished, 
and  the  administration  of  justice  be  in  the  King's  name.  With  the 
last  of  the  requirements  the  court  complied,  despite  much  opposition, 
but  did  nothing  toward  obeying  the  other  commands,  which  all  ex 
cited  bitter  discontent.  A  year  later  the  new  court  consider 
ed  the  royal  commands  again,  and  again  did  nothing  except 
regulate  navigation  bonds  and  appoint  a  committee  to  consider  the 
King's  letter.  When  they  next  met  the  committee  was  not 
ready  to  report;  but,  in  the  mean  time,  news  had  come  that, 
royal  commissioners  were  on  their  way  to  New  England;  so  a  fast 
was  ordered,  measures  were  taken  for  the  safety  of  the  charter,  the 
train-bands  were  organized,  and  the  defences  looked  after.  Thus  pre 
pared,  the  government  of  Massachusetts  awaited  their  unwelcome  vis 
itors,  who  presently  arrived  with  four  men-of-war  and  troops  for  the 
conquest  of  New  York. 

The  royal  commissioners,  Nicolls,  Carr,  Cartwright,  and  Maverick, 
brought  a  letter  to  the  Governor  setting  forth  that  they  were  to  look 
into  the  affairs  of  the  colony  and  their  relations  with  the  Dutch  and 
Indians,  settle  boundaries,  and  inquire  as  to  the  former  letter  from  the 
King.  The  commission  empowered  them  to  hear  and  decide  all  com 
plaints  and  appeals,  military  and  civil ;  and  there  were  besides  two  sets 


356  HISTORY  OF  THE 

of  instructions :  one  public,  requiring  maps  and  a  report ;  and  one  secret, 
ordering  the  commissioners  to  find  out  about  public  feeling,  sound  the 
leading  men,  endeavor  to  found  a  revenue  or  tribute,  and  obtain  for 
the  King  the  nomination  of  the  Governor  and  of  the  officer  at  the  head 
of  the  militia.  When  the  general  court  came  together,  they  passed  a 
resolution  of  loyalty  to  the  King  and  adherence  to  the  patent;  and 
they  followed  this  with  an  order  for  two  hundred  volunteers  for  the 
New  York  expedition.  They  also  repealed  the  religious  test  for  the 
franchise,  and  substituted  as  a  qualification  that  the  voters  should 
have  certificates  of  good  character  from  their  ministers,  and  be  free 
holders  rated  at  ten  shillings ;  and  they  finally  appointed  a  commit 
tee,  which,  after  two  months,  reported  a  petition  to  the  King,  remon 
strating  against  the  powers  of  the  commissioners,  and  begging  in 
moving  terms  that  their  charter,  laws,  and  liberties  might  not  be  in 
vaded. 

While  this  committee  was  at  work  the  commissioners  and  their 
forces  sailed  away  to  New  York.  The  business  of  settling  the  affairs 
of  the  easily  conquered  territory,  and  their  dealings  with  the  other  New 
England  colonies,  occupied  them  nearly  two  years ;  but  at  last  all  was 
done,  and  they  assembled  in  Boston  for  the  final  and  decisive 
struggle.  Endicott  was  dead,  and  Bellingham  at  the  helm.  One 
by  one  the  commissioners  laid  their  instructions  before  the  court, 
which  sometimes  received  them  in  silence  and  sometimes  met  them 
with  argument.  Slowly  and  with  increasing  acrimony  the  commis 
sioners  went  over  the  failures  of  Massachusetts  to  comply  with  the 
King's  letter.  They  objected  to  the  new  test  for  suffrage,  and  to  the 
ingeniously  qualified  oath  of  allegiance  devised  by  the  magistrates ; 
referred  constantly  to  the  independence  assumed  by  the  colony ;  and 
at  last  gave  notice  that  they  would  hear  an  appeal  against  the  Gov 
ernor  and  Company,  and  set  a  day.  The  time  for  delay  and  negotia 
tion  was  past,  and  when  the  day  for  the  trial  arrived  a  messenger  of 
the  court  proclaimed  in  the  street  that  the  appeal  to  the  commission 
ers  was  an  infringement  of  the  Company's  patent,  and  would  not  be 
permitted.  The  commissioners  were  helpless  and  beaten ;  so  they  sent 
in  a  list  of  amendments  to  existing  laws,  and  dispersed.  Cartwright, 
to  whom  the  papers  were  intrusted,  was  captured  at  sea ;  and  while 
he  waited  in  England  for  copies  indignation  had  time  to  cool,  and 
other  events  and  political  changes  pushed  Massachusetts  aside.  A  let 
ter  came  from  the  King,  during  the  contest  with  the  commissioners, 
reproaching  the  court  with  contempt  for  his  jurisdiction,  and  requir- 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  357 

ing  some  of  the  leaders  to  come  to  England ;  but  for  some  months 
the  court  went  on  with  military  defences  against  the  Dutch,  and  then 
replied  that  they  had  given  their  reasons  for  not  submitting  to  the 
commissioners  before,  and  had  nothing  to  add.  Not  long  after  they 
sent  to  England  a  present  of  masts  for  the  royal  navy,  and  prepared 

1667  t0  a^  *n  ^e  War  conc^U(^e^  ky  the  peace  of  Breda.  In  the 
following  year,  after  a  long  interval,  the  Federal  commission 
ers  met  again ;  but  New  Haven  was  gone,  and  the  vigor  of  the  old 
organization  seemed  to  have  departed.  Massachusetts,  however,  re 
sumed  her  sway  in  Maine,  which  the  royal  commissioners  had  med 
dled  with,  and  faced  England  with  apparently  undiminished  strength. 
For  eight  years  after  her  victory,  Massachusetts  was  employed  in 
nothing  more  important  than  questions  of  religious  doctrines  and  the 
affairs  of  the  college.  It  was  well  for  her  that  she  had  this  period  of 
rest  and  prosperity,  for  misfortunes  were  at  hand,  which  came  thick 
and  fast  when  they  once  began  to  come,  and  which  racked  the  body 
politic,  and  put  the  direst  strain  upon  the  strength  and  resources  of 
the  people.  For  more  than  the  lifetime  of  a  generation  there  had 
been  no  trouble  with  the  savages  more  serious  than  a  trivial  quarrel, 
which  had  been  speedily  allayed.  But  while  New  England  was  oc 
cupied  with  the  royal  commission,  and  during  the  succeeding  years 
of  peace,  rumors  of  Indian  plots  came  thicker  and  thicker,  and  seem 
ed  to  have  their  origin  with  Philip,  who  had  succeeded  his  father 
Massasoit,  the  chief  of  the  Pokanokets,  and  the  old  friend  of  Plym 
outh.  Philip  was  called  to  account,  and  made  submission  several 
times;  but  at  last  sure  information  was  received  that  he  was  plot 
ting,  and  the  murder  of  the  informer,  and  the  conviction  and  death 
of  the  murderers,  brought  matters  to  a  crisis.  In  June,  1675, 
the  town  of  Swanzey  was  twice  attacked,  the  houses  burned, 
and  the  people  slain ;  and  this  was  the  beginning  of  the  fiercest  and 
most  prolonged  of  the  many  Indian  wars  in  which  the  English  col 
onies  engaged.  It  lasted  for  two  years,  and  is  one  long  story  of 
burning  and  massacre.  The  outlying  farms  were  broken  up,  and 
their  owners  shot  down  by  hidden  savages ;  while  the  smaller  set 
tlements  were  ravaged  and  destroyed,  and  on  several  bloody  fields 
the  troops  were  surprised,  caught  in  an  ambush,  and  slaughtered. 
Beginning  in  Rhode  Island,  the  war  rapidly  spread  through  the  west 
and  north,  and  then  to  the  eastward,  until  all  New  England  was  en 
gaged  in  a  desperate  struggle  against  desolation  and  death.  At  the 
close  of  the  first  year  the  Narragansetts  broke  their  treaty,  but  before 


358  HISTORY  OF  THE 

they  could  move  the  combined  forces  of  the  colonies  were  on  the 
march.  The  great  Narragansett  fort  was  stormed  with  heavy  loss  of 
life,  and  after  a  terrible  fight  the  wigwams  were  fired,  the  Indians 
cut  down  without  mercy,  and  the  military  strength  of  this  formidable 
tribe  forever  broken.  After  this  success  the  fighting  drifted  away  to 
the  west,  and  the  Connecticut  Valley  and  all  the  frontier  towns  were 
assailed,  the  war  raging  with  greater  ferocity  than  ever,  and  with  va 
rying  success.  Gradually,  however,  the  tide  turned  in  favor  of  the 
English,  the  Indians  were  hunted  and  attacked  in  large  bodies,  and 
slain  by  hundreds,  for  the  day  of  mercy  had  passed,  and  the  fight 
ing  spirit  of  the  Puritans  had  reached  its  highest  pitch.  In  the  sum 
mer,  Philip,  who  had  wandered  back,  with  disaster,  defeat,  and  submis 
sion  on  every  side,  was  tracked  to  his  lair  at  Mount  Hope,  and 
killed  by  the  forces  under  the  command  of  Church,  the  most 
daring  and  jovial  of  Indian  fighters.  In  the  south  and  west  the  war 
was  now  nearly  over;  but  for  more  than  a  year  it  continued  in  the 
east,  and  the  settlements  in  that  region  were  in  large  measure  ruined. 
Troops  were  sent  from  Massachusetts,  and,  after  much  sangui 
nary  fighting,  the  Indians  were  finally  brought  to  terms,  and  the 
war  ended ;  but  this  long  and  desperate  conflict  fell  upon  New  England 
with  crushing  effect.  A  vast  amount  of  property  had  been  destroy 
ed,  and  there  was  mourning  in  every  household.  The  colonies  were 
loaded  with  debt,  while  the  enormous  expenditure  of  men  and  money 
had  crippled  the  public  resources,  weakened  the  government,  and  de 
pressed  the  spirit  of  the  people.  It  was  the  evil  hour  of  Massachu 
setts,  and  the  opportunity  of  her  enemies,  who  were  not  slow  to  take 
advantage  of  it. 

The  claims  of  Mason  and  Gorges,  and  the  hostility  of  the  London 
merchants  to  New  England,  for  her  evasion  of  the  navigation  laws, 
were  the  moving  causes  of  this  renewed  attack.  The  opinion  of  the 
solicitor-general  was  favorable  to  the  claims ;  the  Lords  of  Trade  de 
cided  that  the  time  had  come  to  regulate  New  England  affairs,  and 
Edward  Randolph  was  sent  out  as  agent.  He  arrived  in  the  midst 
of  the  Indian  war,  and  at  once  laid  before  the  Governor  and  assist 
ants  a  royal  letter,  requiring  them  to  send  agents  to  answer  the  claims 
of  Mason  and  Gorges.  He  was  told  that  an  answer  should  be  sent, 
and  then  devoted  himself  to  stirring  up  a  party  for  the  Crown  in  Bos 
ton,  working  on  the  fears  of  the  smaller  colonies,  and  preparing  com 
plaints  of  the  infractions  of  the  Navigation  Act.  He  finally  returned 
to  England  full  of  accusations  of  all  sorts,  from  coining  money  to 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  359 

not  observing  Christmas,  and  on  no  good  terras  with  the  magistrates. 
He  was  soon  followed  by  Stoughton  and  Bulkeley  as  agents  of  the 
general  court,  and  the  last  struggle  was  fairly  opened.     Into  the  de 
tails  of  that  prolonged  contest,  covering  nearly  eight  years,  it  is  im 
possible  here  to  enter.     Massachusetts  temporized,  procrastinated,  and 
resisted  at  all  points,  yielding  here  and  there,  but  rarely  in  essentials, 
postponing  the  evil  day  as  long  as  possible,  and  buying  off  Gorges 
quietly,  to  the  intense  disgust  of  the  King.     In  England  matters 
went  steadily  against  the  colony.     Mason  was  sustained,  and  royal 
reproofs  came  with  increasing  severity,  while,  worst  of  all,  Randolph 
succeeded  in  building  up  a  party  of  submission  to  the  Crown,  led  by 
Joseph  Dudley,  and  comprising  some  of  the  foremost  men  in  the 
colony.    There  was  no  mistaking  the  issue.    The  independence  of  the 
commonwealth  was  at  stake,  and  the  contest  was  desperate.     At  last 
Charles  sent  a  peremptory  letter,  requiring  agents  to  be  despatch 
ed  to  give  in  unqualified  submission.     The  court  had  to  yield, 
and  sent  Dudley  and  Richards,  the  former  unpopular  at  home,  but 
representing  the  party  of  the  Crown.     They  carried  with  them,  how 
ever,  a  letter  so  unyielding  in  tone  that  the  King's  patience  gave  way, 
and  a  writ  of  quo  warranto  was  issued  against  the  Company. 
This  writ  Randolph  took  to  Massachusetts,  where  he  had  work 
ed  so  well  that  the  magistrates  voted  to  give  way,  and  let  the  King 
regulate  their  charter  and  their  laws ;  but  the  deputies  stood  firm, 
and  resolved  to  defend  themselves  to  the  last.     Their  case, 
however,  was  hopeless,  and  the  charter  was  annulled ;  but  be 
fore  the  official  announcement  reached  them  Charles  was  dead,  and 
James  was  proclaimed  at  Boston.      By  the  advice  of  Ran 
dolph  a  provisional  government  by  commission,  with  the  now 
hated  Dudley  as  president,  was  formed,  against  which   the  general 
court  protested,  and  relapsed  into  helpless  silence.     Colonel  Kirke,  who 
had  been  chosen  by  Charles,  and  confirmed  by  James  as  the  ruler  of 
New  England,  was  detained  by  Monmouth's  rebellion  ;  and  the  provi 
sional  government  went  on  for  a  year,  doing  little,  and  hated 
much,  until  the  long-dreaded  Governor-general  arrived  in  the 
person  of  Sir  Edmund  Andros. 

With  the  charter  were  swept  away  representative  government,  and 
every  right  and  every  political  institution  reared  during  half  a  cen 
tury  of  conflict.  The  rule  of  Andros  was  on  the  model  dear  to 
the  heart  of  his  royal  master — a  harsh  despotism,  but  neither  strong 
nor  wise ;  it  was  wretched  misgovernment,  and  stupid,  blundering 


360  HISTORY  OF  THE 

oppression,  and  this  arbitrary  and  miserable  system   Andres  under 
took  to  force  upon  a  people  of  English  race,  who  had  been  inde 
pendent  and  self-governing  for  fifty  years.     He  laid  taxes  at  his  own 
pleasure,  and  not  even  according  to  previous  rates,  as  he  had  prom 
ised  ;  he  denied  the  Habeas  Corpus  to  John  Wise,  the  intrepid  min 
ister  of  Ipswich,  arrested  for  preaching  against  taxation  without  rep 
resentation,  and  he  awakened  a  like  resistance  in  all  directions.     He 
instituted  fees,  was  believed  to  pack  juries,  and  made  Randolph  li 
censer  of  the  press.     Worst  of  all,  he  struck  at  property,  demanded 
the  examination  of  the  old  titles,  declared  them  worthless,  extorted 
quit-rents  for  renewal,  and  issued  writs  of  intrusion  against  those  who 
resisted ;  while,  not  content  with  attacking  political  liberty  and  the 
rights  of  property,  he  excited  religious  animosity  by  forbidding  civil 
marriages,  seizing  the  old  South  church  for  the  Episcopal  service, 
and  introducing  swearing  by  the  Book  in  courts  of  justice.     He  left 
nothing  undone  to  enrage  the  people  and  prepare  for  revolu 
tion  ;  and  when  he  returned  from  unsuccessful  Indian  war 
fare  in  the  east,  the  storm  was  ready  to  burst.     News  came  of  the 
landing  of  the  Prince  of  Orange.     Andros  arrested  the  bearer 
of  the  tidings,  and  issued  a  proclamation  against  the  Prince ; 
but  the  act  was  vain.     Without  apparent  concert  or  preparation  Bos 
ton  rose  in  arms,  the  signal-fire  blazed  on  Beacon  Hill,  and  the  country 
people  poured  in,  hot  for  revenge.     Some  of  the  old  magistrates  met 
at  the  town-house,  and  read  a  "  declaration  of  the  gentlemen,  mer 
chants,  and  inhabitants,"  setting  forth  the  misdeeds  of  Andros,  the  il 
legality  of  the  Dudley  government  by  commission,  and  the  wrongful 
suppression  of  the  charter.     Andros  and  Dudley  were  arrested  and 
thrown  into  prison,  together  with  the  captain  of  the  Rose  frigate, 
which  lay  helpless  beneath  the  guns  of  the  fort,  and  a  provisional 
government  was  established,  with  Bradstreet  at  its  head.    William  and 
Mary  were  proclaimed,  the  revolution  was  complete,  and  Andros  soon 
went  back  a  prisoner  to  England. 

Affairs  went  on  quietly  under  the  provisional  government.  In 
crease  Mather  was  in  England  as  agent  for  the  colony,  and  Cooke  and 
Oakes  were  associated  with  him  by  the  general  court.  In  the  first 
burst  of  joy  on  the  success  of  the  revolution  it  seemed  as  if  the  colo 
nists  would  regain  their  old  charter,  but  time  passed,  the  active  opposi 
tion  of  Randolph  and  Andros  gathered  strength,  the  King  had  no  mind 
to  give  more  than  was  necessary,  or  to  treat  the  colonies  like  English 
towns  in  a  similar  condition,  and  the  agents  finally  had  to  be  content 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  361 

with  a  new  provincial  charter.  The  absolute  independence  of  the  old 
charter  was  lost,  but  the  frame  of  government  was  far  more 
liberal  than  that  of  most  of  the  royal  provinces.  The  Crown 
was  to  appoint  the  Governor,  deputy,  and  secretary,  who  in  turn  ap 
pointed  the  judiciary  ;  the  Governor's  assent  was  now  necessary  to  leg 
islation,  and  he  could  summon,  dissolve,  and  prorogue  the  deputies. 
The  Council,  however,  was  to  be  chosen  by  the  House,  subject  to  the 
approval  of  the  Governor,  and  the  whole  power  of  the  purse  was  given 
to  the  representatives  of  the  people.  The  religious  test  for  the  fran 
chise  was  replaced  by  a  property  qualification,  so  that  religious  liberty 
was  assured.  Plymouth,  which  had  grown  slowly  since  its  settlement, 
but  remained  weak  and  unprotected,  was  refused  a  charter,  and  incor 
porated  with  Massachusetts,  as  well  as  the  district  of  Maine  and  Nova 
Scotia,  while  New  Hampshire  became  finally  a  separate  government. 
Other  royal  officers,  in  the  shape  of  a  surveyor  of  woods,  collector  of 
customs,  and  admiralty  judge,  were  to  appear  and  perform  their  un 
welcome  duties  in  Massachusetts. 

The  selection  of  officers  for  the  new  government  was  left  to  Mather, 
who  picked  out  Sir  William  Phips  for  the  place  of  Governor,  probably 
as  a  man  whom  he  could  control.  Phips  was  a  native  of  Maine ;  he  had 
made  his  fortune  by  raising  a  Spanish  galleon,  his  reputation  and  title 
by  his  capture  of  Port  Royal  and  conquest  of  Nova  Scotia  in  1690,  and 
his  popularity  by  his  payment  of  the  soldiers  after  the  failure  of  the 
attempt  on  Canada  in  the  same  year.  He  was  a  hot-headed,  energetic, 
vain  man  of  slight  political  capacity,  and  his  administration  was  nei 
ther  successful  nor  important.  The  opening  years  of  his  term  were 
clouded  by  the  terrible  tragedies  of  the  witchcraft  delusion,  which  I 
have  discussed  elsewhere ;  while  in  public  affairs  a  strong  opposition 
was  formed  against  him  by  the  friends  of  the  old  charter,  which  check 
ed  his  movements  and  irritated  his  temper.  He  failed  in  an  Indian 
expedition,  and  quarrelled  violently  and  openly  with  the  royal  officers. 
His  political  strength  was  in  the  country,  and  he  succeeded  in  break 
ing  the  power  of  Boston  by  a  law  requiring  deputies  to  reside  in  the 
town  they  represented — a  pernicious  principle  of  local  political  resi 
dence  which  has  become  embedded  in  the  political  systems  of  the 
United  States.  His  lack  of  wisdom  and  his  violent  quarrels 
finally  led  to  his  recall,  to  answer  the  charges  made  against  him 
in  London,  where  he  died  in  the  following  year.  Under  Phips  the 
current  of  Massachusetts  history  changes,  and  becomes  like  that  of 
other  royal  provinces.  The  great  Puritan  experiment  of  Church  and 


362  HISTORY  OF  THE 

State  united  had  failed,  and  was  at  an  end,  and  the  strength  of  the 
once  all-powerful  clergy  was  rapidly  declining.  The  political  strug 
gle  was  no  longer  that  of  Massachusetts  against  England,  but  of  the 
people  of  Massachusetts  against  the  royal  Governors,  and  this  contest 
is  one  familiar  to  us  in  all  the  colonies. 

The  withdrawal  and  death  of  Phips  left  the  government  in  the  hands 
of  the  Lieutenant-governor,  William  Stoughton,  bitterly  unpopular  as 
one  of  the  party  of  the  Crown  in  the  dark  days  when  the  life  of  the 
old  charter  was  at  stake.  He  was  chiefly  occupied  during  his  term  of 
office  with  the  Indian  wars,  bequeathed  to  him  by  Phips,  in  the  north 
and  east,  a  part  of  the  great  struggle  between  France  and  England, 
and  instigated  by  the  French  Jesuits  in  Maine,  among  whom  Stephen 
Rasle  now  assumes  an  evil  prominence.  After  a  gloomy  but  not  un 
successful  administration  of  nearly  five  years,  Stoughton  was 
superseded  by  Lord  Bellomont,  who,  appointed  some  time  be 
fore,  had  been  delayed  upon  his  journey,  and  then  by  his  government 
in  New  York.  Bellomont  was  well  received,  and  the  Legislature  made 
him  a  generous  allowance,  about  which  he  grumbled  after  the  fashion 
of  his  kind,  but  they  refused  to  fix  a  permanent  salary ;  and  they  suc 
ceeded  also  in  establishing  a  judiciary,  their  former  efforts  in  this  di 
rection  having  been  defeated  in  England.  Bellomont  favored  the  pop~ 
ular  party  in  Massachusetts  as  in  New  York,  and  carefully  investigated 
the  affairs  of  the  province,  occupying  himself  principally  with 
the  suppression  of  piracy  and  with  bringing  Kidd  to  justice. 
He  appears  to  have  been  much  liked,  but  he  only  remained  in  the 
province  a  little  more  than  a  year,  and  soon  after  died  in  New  York, 
when  the  government  once  more  devolved  upon  Stoughton,  who  died 
a  few  months  later ;  and  in  the  following  year  Joseph  Dudley  attained 
the  summit  of  his  ambition,  and  came  out  with  a  royal  commission  to 
govern  his  native  province  and  that  of  New  Hampshire.  Joseph  Dud 
ley,  untrue  to  his  country  and  to  the  honored  name  he  bore,  had  been 
the  principal  leader  of  the  Crown  party  against  the  old  charter.  Re 
warded  by  the  presidency  of  the  government  by  commission  and  by  the 
chief -justiceship  of  New  York,  he  had  gone  to  England  and  been  made 
Governor  of  the  Isle  of  Wight,  and  chosen  a  member  of  Parliament. 
Defeated  in  his  hopes  by  the  appointment  of  Bellomont,  the  death 
of  his  successful  rival  left  the  field  open  before  him,  and  he  received 
a  commission  from  Anne,  and  came  out  to  rule  over  his  fellow-citizens, 
who  for  the  most  part  thoroughly  disliked  him.  Dudley  was,  how 
ever,  a  man  of  force  and  ability,  and  had  certain  advantages  as  a  Puri- 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  363 

tan  and  dissenter,  so  that  he  gradually  built  up  a  party  bound  together 
by  ties  of  self-interest,  but  he  failed  to  gain  political  supremacy,  and 
the  people  never  forgot  his  past  career.  At  the  outset  he  demanded 
a  permanent  salary,  which  was  refused,  and  he  immediately  exercised 
his  power  of  rejecting  counsellors,  thus  opening  a  fresh  and  bitter 
source  of  controversy.  In  this  same  way  his  administration  went  on 
to  the  end,  with  constant  wrangles  about  salaries,  appropriations,  and 
counsellors,  and  upon  every  point  on  which  a  difference  could  arise. 
Dudley  was  proud  and  overbearing,  strongly  suspected  of  dealings 
which  savored  of  fraud  and  treason,  and  for  which  his  supposed  ac 
complices  suffered,  and  became  more  unpopular  as  time  went  on,  while 
in  every  essential  point  he  was  baffled  by  the  shrewd,  persistent,  pop 
ular  opposition  led  principally  by  Elisha  Cooke,  but  perfectly  capable 
of  dealing  with  the  Governor  without  leaders.  Cotton  Mather,  who 
had  helped  Dudley  to  his  appointment,  found  he  could  not  rule  him, 
and  the  pair  soon  fell  out.  The  clergy  generally  joined  the  opposi 
tion,  but,  headed  by  the  two  Mathers,  they  were  defeated  in  regard  to 
the  college,  and  thus  lost  their  last  stronghold.  The  principal  events 
of  Dudley's  term  of  office  were  connected  with  the  war  between  France 
and  England,  renewed  on  the  accession  of  Anne  to  the  throne, 
In  New  England  this  war  meant  Indian  atrocities.  Instigated 
and  led  by  the  French,  the  savages  broke  in  upon  the  settlements  of 
Maine  and  the  Connecticut  valley,  pillaging,  slaying,  and  burning  in 
the  usual  manner,  and  once  more  ruining  many  of  the  already  blood 
stained  settlements  of  the  east.  Colonel  Church  was  sent  to  the  re 
lief  of  these  settlements,  but  effected  little,  and  the  war  went  on  for 
years  with  savage  reprisals  on  both  sides,  but  little  result,  and  with 
the  balance  of  suffering  against  the  English.  At  last  Dudley  raised 
a  force  of  a  thousand  men  in  New  England  for  an  expedition 
against  Port  Royal ;  but  the  campaign  was  a  failure,  and  the 
army  wasted  away  with  disease.  Three  years  later,  with  English  aid, 
obtained  by  Schuyler  and  Nicholson,  the  combined  forces  of 
the  colonies  reduced  Port  Royal,  a  success  which  was  overbal 
anced  by  the  disaster  in  the  next  year  of  Hill  and  Walker,  in  which 
Massachusetts  suffered  heavy  losses  both  of  men  and  money.  The 
peace  of  Utrecht  finally  brought  the  much  needed  relief;  and  after 
three  years  more  of  domestic  quarrel  George  I.  came  to  the  throne,  the 
Whigs  were  again  supreme,  the  complaints  of  Massachusetts  were  at 
tended  to,  and  Dudley  was  refused  a  new  commission. 

The  government  devolved  upon  Tailer,  the  Lieutenant-governor,  dis- 


364  HISTORY  OF  THE 

tinguished  at  Port  Royal,  and  under  whom  the  popular  party  had  things 
pretty  much  their  own  way.  The  principal  political  question 
grew  out  of  the  financial  difficulties,  the  debt  and  the  paper- 
money  of  the  colony.  Colonel  Burgess,  who  received  the  appoint 
ment  of  Governor,  was  understood  to  favor  the  "private  bank"  scheme, 
and  was  therefore  bought  off  for  a  thousand  pounds  by  the  agents1  of 
Massachusetts,  through  whose  influence  new  appointments  were  made, 
and  Samuel  Shute,  a  soldier,  and  William  Dummer,  a  native  of 
Massachusetts,  came  out  as  Governor  and  Lieutenant.  Shute 
was  an  honest  man,  but  with  a  rigid  military  sense  of  obedience  to  in 
structions,  and  of  the  sacredness  of  order  and  discipline ;  and  his  throw 
ing  himself  upon  Dudley's  party  for  support,  though  perhaps  inevita 
ble,  did  not  help  him.  He  was  not,  in  fact,  fitted  to  rule  over  a  wary 
and  astute  set  of  popular  politicians,  and  his  whole  administration  was 
made  up  of  a  series  of  quarrels  on  a  variety  of  points,  some  new  and 
some  old.  One  of  the  new  questions  was  in  regard  to  the  forests  and 
the  trees  marked  by  the  royal  surveyor  with  the  broad  arrow  for  the 
King's  use.  The  back  settlers,  who  had  won  their  land  by  hard  fight 
ing  from  nature  and  from  the  savages,  had  no  mind  to  submit  to  this 
loss  of  their  most  valuable  export;  so  while  the  surveyor,  John  Bridges, 
marked  trees,  the  farmers  cut  them  down,  and  the  whole  frontier  was  in 
a  ferment.  Complaints  came  to  Boston  of  the  action  of  the  surveyor ; 
Cooke  supported  them,  and  the  Governor  turned  him  out  of  the  Coun 
cil,  whereupon  the  general  court  remonstrated,  and  printed  their  re 
monstrance  despite  the  prohibition  of  the  Governor.  They  further 
elected  Cooke  Speaker,  but  Shute  refused  to  confirm  him,  claiming 
that  right  as  part  of  his  prerogative,  and  dissolved  the  court,  thus 
opening  a  new  source  of  controversy  and  dispute.  The  Legislature 
had,  however,  much  the  best  of  the  Governor  in  the  chronic  quarrel 
about  salaries,  and  they  used  this  power  to  hamper  him  in  every 
new  difference.  They  not  only  adhered  firmly  to  their  refusal  to 
grant  a  permanent  salary,  but,  to  emphasize  their  displeasure,  they 
cut  down  the  annual  allowance  year  by  year,  until  the  Lieutenant- 
governor's  became  so  small  that  Dummer  refused  to  accept  it.  A 
matter  of  much  more  serious  interest  to  the  welfare  of  the  colony 
was  the  long-standing  financial  trouble  growing  out  of  the  expen 
ditures  in  the  French  and  Indian  wars,  which  bore  fruit  in  debts  and 
depreciated  bills  of  credit.  One  party  favored  resumption  in  gold 
and  silver ;  another  desired  a  private  bank  and  unlimited  paper ;  a 
third  urged  a  public  bank,  with  careful  limitation  and  regulation  of 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  365 

bills  of  credit.  In  regard  to  all  these  schemes  public  feeling  ran  high. 
Burgess  had  been  bought  off  because  he  favored  the  private  bank,  and 
Shute  incurred  the  enmity  of  this  faction  by  supporting  the  public 

bank,  which  was  far  better,  and  was  at  last  established,  but 
1721* 

nothing,  however,  could  check  the  heedless  issues  of  more  and 

more  paper  currency,  until  even  the  small  token-money  consisted  of 
ragged  bits  of  paper,  and  a  depreciation  set  in  which  was  really 
frightful. 

Another  source  of  dispute  grew  out  of  renewed  troubles  with  the 
eastern  Indians,  who  were  continually  incited  to  hostilities  by  the 
French  rulers  and  the  Jesuit  priests.  Shute  urged  the  establishment 
of  public  trading-posts,  to  stop  the  sharp  dealings  of  private  traders ; 
but  his  scheme  was  frustrated  by  the  never-ceasing  political  dissen 
sions.  He  also  endeavored,  unsuccessfully,  to  negotiate  with  the  tribes, 
and  to  send  a  Puritan  minister  among  them;  but  they  would  not 
make  peace,  and  would  not  desert  the  Jesuits,  so  that  at  last  war  broke 
out,  with  the  usual  surprises  and  slaughtering  in  the  outlying  settle 
ments,  and  bringing  in  its  train  a  fresh  political  quarrel.  The  general 
court,  dissatisfied  with  the  conduct  of  the  campaigns,  undertook  to 
get  control  of  the  troops,  appoint  the  officers,  and  coerce  and  punish 
them  by  withholding  their  pay.  They  had  no  possible  right  under 
the  charter  to  seize  military  control ;  but  they  crippled  the  operations 
of  the  war,  and  finally  drove  the  harassed  Governor  to  England 
in  search  of  relief.  William  Dummer,  upon  whom  the  gov 
ernment  devolved,  was  a  temperate  and  intelligent  man ;  but  he  was 
assailed,  as  his  predecessor  had  been,  in  regard  to  military  matters,  and 
found  that  he  could  expect  no  mercy  in  this  respect.  He,  however, 
stood  his  ground  firmly,  and,  after  much  wrangling,  the  general  court 
gave  way,  the  contest  was  allayed,  and  the  war  prosecuted  with  some 
vigor.  In  the  following  year  an  expedition  was  sent  out,  directed 
against  the  centre  of  intrigue  and  hostility.  Rasle's  settlement  was 
surprised  and  destroyed,  and  Rasle  himself,  the  prime  mover  of  all  the 
burning  and  murdering,  was  righteously  shot  by  a  Massachusetts  sol 
dier.  The  war  went  on  in  guerilla  fashion  for  nearly  two  years  more, 
with  its  usual  accompaniments  of  ambuscades,  massacres,  and 
bloody  fighting,  until  at  last  the  Indians,  worn  out  and  de 
prived  of  their  guide  and  counsellor,  made  peace. 

Shute,  meantime,  had  been  at  work  in  London,  whither  the  court 
also  sent  agents  —  Jeremiah  Dummer  and  Cooke  —  to  oppose  him. 
Shute's  complaints,  however,  in  many  respects  only  too  well  founded, 


366  HISTORY  OF  THE 

prevailed ;  and  first  came  a  remonstrance,  and  then  an  explanatory 
charter,  which  the  court  was  forced  to  accept,  and  which,  denying 
them  the  right  to  adjourn  themselves  for  more  than  two  days, 
also  gave  the  Governor  the  power  to  confirm  the  Speaker. 
While  Shute  was  preparing  to  return  to  the  colony,  which  was  well 
satisfied  with  Dummer,  George  I.  died,  Shute  was  put  aside,  and  Mas 
sachusetts  and  New  Hampshire  conferred  upon  William  Bur- 
net,  who  arrived  in  the  following  year,  and  whose  brief  admin 
istration  was  one  continuous  and  bitter  fight  over  the  salary  question, 
to  which  the  court  added  the  claim  to  audit  the  accounts,  and  for 
bid  the  Governor  to  draw  from  a  general  appropriation  by  his  simple 
warrant.     Burnet's  instructions  were  peremptory  to  obtain  a  fixed 
salary,  and  he  was  not  a  man  to  yield  a  jot.     He  combatted  the  court 
earnestly  and  angrily,  dissolved  and  prorogued  them,  adjourned  them 
to  Salem  and  Cambridge — a  new  and  bitter  grievance — and  lectured 
and  scolded  them  unceasingly.     The  court  met  argument  with  argu 
ment,  were  to  the  full  as  stubborn  as  the  Governor,  and  could  not  be 
moved.     When  the  conflict  was  at  its  height,  Burnet  died  sud 
denly  of  a  fever,  and  the  court,  which  had  received  him  lavishly 
and  thwarted  him  steadily,  gave  him  a  sumptuous  funeral. 

Dummer,  again  at  the  head  of  affairs,  refused  to  accept  anything 
except  a  permanent  salary ;  and  the  court,  although  unyielding  here, 
gave  way  for  the  time  on  the  matter  of  auditing  accounts,  and  sup 
plied  the  treasury.  Burners  successor  soon  came  out  in  the  person 
of  Jonathan  Belcher — a  native  of  Massachusetts — an  adroit  and  not 

over-sensitive  politician,  who  had  of  late  years  taken  the  popu- 

1730.  .,  ,    .  J    -  •  jTj 

lar  side,  and  a  good  manager,  but  a  man  or  narrow  mind  and 

contracted  views.  He  brought  with  him  instructions  as  to  the  salary 
as  decided  as  those  given  to  Burnet,  accompanied  with  a  threat  to 
bring  the  whole  matter  before  Parliament.  The  House,  however,  was 
not  in  the  least  disturbed,  but  stood  their  ground  without  flinching, 
and  refused  all  compromises  urged  by  the  Council,  until  at  last,  as 
everything  was  at  a  stand,  they  sent  a  memorial  to  the  King,  asking 
that  Belcher  be  allowed  to  accept  their  temporary  grants.  For  three 
years  this  assent  was  accorded,  and  then  the  Privy  Council 
gave  way,  and  the  House  triumphed,  for  they  had  fairly  won 
the  power  to  keep  the  Governor  in  order  by  an  annual  allowance. 
Belcher  had  undertaken  to  build  up  a  party  devoted  to  himself  by 
a  redistribution  of  the  offices — a  proceeding  very  distasteful  to  the 
people  —  and  he  had  broken  the  power  of  Cooke,  the  popular  lead- 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  367 

er,  by  getting  him  into  a  judgeship ;  but,  despite  the  ill-feeling  thus 
aroused,  and  the  defeat  on  the  salary,  he  gained  a  substantial  victory 
over  the  House  as  to  their  right  to  audit  accounts.  The  Governor 
was  not  distressed  by  an  empty  treasury,  unpaid  officials,  and  neg 
lected  public  business,  but  the  people  were ;  so  the  House  had  to 
give  way,  and  allow  the  Governor  to  draw  by  his  warrant  without 
special  act.  This  contest  was  revived  when  war  came  with  Spain, 
and  prevented  Massachusetts  from  taking  much  part  in  that  struggle ; 
hut  the  victory,  on  the  whole,  was  unquestionably  with  the  Governor. 
The  chief  troubles  of  Belcher's  administration  were,  of  course,  con 
nected  with  the  wretched  financial  condition  of  the  colony,  now  made 
worse  by  floods  of  bills  from  Rhode  Island ;  and  fresh  issues  and 
deeper  depreciation  make  up  the  history  of  the  currency.  In  the 
midst  of  this  a  wild  scheme  of  a  land-bank  was  proposed,  which  was 
very  popular,  but  did  not  receive  the  sanction  of  Parliament,  so  that 
the  Company  was  dissolved.  Against  this  land-bank  scheme  Belcher 
set  his  face,  removed  officers  right  and  left,  and  disallowed  the  elec 
tions  of  those  interested  in  the  project,  a  course  which  stirred  up  a 
host  of  active  enemies ;  while  another  source  of  hostility  came  from 
the  settlement  of  the  New  Hampshire  boundary,  in  which  the  Gov 
ernor  was  said  to  be  dishonestly  interested,  and  where  he  certainly 
offended  many  persons.  His  popularity  did  not  increase,  and 
his  combined  opponents  finally  obtained  his  removal ;  so  that 
long  before  he  could  vindicate  himself,  his  successor,  William  Shirley, 
who  had  lived  some  years  in  the  province,  was  appointed. 

Shirley  found  himself  face  to  face  with  the  financial  difficulties,  en 
hanced  by  the  land-bank  scheme  and  by  the  approaching  day  of  re 
demption,  after  which  time  he  was  forbidden  to  allow  the  continu 
ance  of  bills  of  credit ;  but,  in  deference  to  the  wishes  of  the  court 
and  the  popular  dread  of  severe  taxation,  he  boldly  violated  his  in 
structions,  and  allowed  the  bills  to  be  continued.  He  also  succeeded 
in  securing  the  confidence  of  the  deputies,  and  in  establishing  for  the 
first  time  harmony  between  the  various  branches  of  the  government. 
When  political  matters  were  quiet,  the  province  was  shaken  by  the 
religious  revival,  and  by  the  work  of  Edwards  and  Whitefield,  which 
produced  much  excitement  and  some  controversy,  but  did  not  enter 
into  politics.  While  Massachusetts  was  thus  engaged,  the  storm 
of  war  was  slowly  gathering  between  France  and  England,  and 
broke  at  last,  threatening  the  colonies,  as  usual,  with  the  terrors  of 
savage  hordes  from  the  north.  Shirley,  who,  although  bred  a  lawyer, 


868  HISTORY  OF  THE 

was  not  without  boldness  and  imagination  as  a  soldier,  formed  an  ex« 
tensive  plan  for  the  capture  of  the  great  stronghold  of  Lonisbarg  by 
New  England,  aided  by  the  English  fleet.  The  general  court,  doubt 
ing  and  amazed,  fell  in  with  the  Governor's  plan ;  an  army  was  raised 
of  twenty-two  hundred  men  from  Massachusetts,  and  some  eight  hun 
dred  from  Connecticut  and  New  Hampshire,  while  the  co-operation  of 
the  English  fleet  under  Warren  was  secured.  William  Pepperell  com 
manded  the  provincial  troops,  who  were  safely  landed  at  Louisburg, 

where  the  outlying  batteries  were  stormed  and  taken,  the  town 

invested,  the  English  fleet  blocked  the  harbor,  and  the  French, 
worn  down  by  hunger  and  fighting,  surrendered.  It  was  a  gallant  ex 
ploit — almost  the  only  glory  of  an  unsuccessful  war.  Pepperell  was 
made  a  baronet,  and  he  and  Shirley  were  both  made  colonels.  The 
further  expedition  against  Canada,  in  planning  which  Shirley  took  a 
conspicuous  part,  came  to  nothing,  and  the  truce  or  peace  of  Aix-la- 
Chapelle  put  an  end  to  a  conflict  in  which  New  England  had  suf 
fered  much  and  gained  little.  Her  expenditures  were  reimbursed  ; 
and  Massachusetts,  to  whom  the  lion's  share  fell,  received  her  pay 
ment  in  silver  and  copper,  thanks  to  the  exertions  of  Bollan  and 
Hutchinson.  The  depreciated  currency  was  called  in  and  replaced 
by  coin  thus  obtained,  laws  were  passed  excluding  the  paper  of  oth< 
er  colonies,  and  the  finances  of  the  province  were  at  last  upon  a  sure 
and  strong  foundation ;  but  beyond  this  Massachusetts  gained  noth 
ing.  Peace  gave  Louisburg  back  to  France,  the  prize-money  was  en 
tirely  absorbed  by  the  English  navy,  and  Commodore  Knowles  came 
with  his  fleet  to  Boston,  where,  as  a  mark  of  respect,  he  sent  his  press- 
gangs  on  shore  and  seized  men  for  his  vessels.  A  fierce  riot  broke 
out  in  Boston ;  Shirley  withdrew  to  the  Castle,  English  officers  were 
seized,  and  Knowles  threatened  to  bombard  the  town;  but  the  general 
court  restored  order,  the  officers  were  given  up,  and  the  impressed 
seamen  returned.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  whole  movement, 
though  apparently  a  riot,  was  managed  by  shrewd  and  leading  men ;  and 
the  affair  did  not  tend  to  increase  the  popular  affection  for  England. 
After  the  peace,  Shirley  went  to  England,  leaving  his  government 

in  the  hands  of  Spencer  Phips,  in  order  to  urge  the  fortifi- 
1753  ca^lon  °f  Crown  Point;  and  while  there,  he  was  one  of  a 

commission  to  settle  boundaries  with  France,  which  proved  fu 
tile,  so  that  he  returned  to  Massachusetts  eager  for  a  renewal  of  the 
conflict  between  the  French  and  English,  and  full  of  schemes  of  con 
quest.  War  was,  in  fact,  on  the  verge  of  breaking  out,  and  hostilities 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  869 

which  are  associated  with  the  name  of  Washington  were  already  be 
ginning  in  the  valley  of  the  Ohio.  The  death-struggle  of  the  two 
great  powers  striving  for  a  continent  was  at  hand,  and  into  this 
conflict  Shirley,  inflamed  by  his  success  at  Louisburg,  eagerly  threw 
himself.  He  was  the  most  distinguished  of  colonial  governors — san 
guine,  high-spirited,  adroit,  and  popular  in  Massachusetts.  He  took 
a  leading  part  in  the  Congress  of  Governors  at  Albany,  and  warm 
ly  supported  the  abortive  scheme  of  union  proposed  by  Franklin. 
He  also  had  a  large  share  in  the  campaigns  of  the  following  year, 
heading  in  person  the  expedition  against  Fort  Niagara,  which 
went  no  farther  than  Oswego,  and  planning  that  under  John 
son,  which  resulted  in  the  defeat  of  Dieskau.  In  all  he  was  sustained 
by  Massachusetts,  whose  troops  bore  a  prominent  part  in  every  expe 
dition.  The  principal  event  of  the  year  was  the  conquest  of  Acadia, 
planned  in  Massachusetts,  and  carried  out  by  New  England  troops  un 
der  the  lead  of  Winslow,  who  reduced  the  country  and  captured  the 
forts.  The  conquest  was  marked  by  the  expulsion  of  the  simple  and 
inoffensive  Acadians,  in  accordance  with  instructions  from  England, 
and  was  due  to  a  policy  in  which  Shirley  had  an  important  part; 
but  the  terrible  scenes  accompanying  the  removal  of  these  harmless 
people  from  their  homes  are  dark  stains  upon  the  English  in  the 
conduct  of  this  great  war. 

The  conquest  of  Acadia  and  the  defeat  of  Dieskau,  however,  did 
little  more  than  balance  the  awful  disaster  of  Braddock.    Shir 
ley,  who  had  now  reached  his  highest  point,  was  commander- 
in-chief  of  all  the  forces,  and,  at  a  meeting  of  Governors,  in  his  usual 
grand  manner  proposed  three  expeditions — against  Fort  Du  Quesne, 
Fort  Frontenac,  and  Ticonderoga,  respectively.    His  plans  were  accept 
ed;  but  confidence  in  his  ability  had  begun  to  wane  in  Massachusetts, 
where  he  only  succeeded  in  getting  men  by  advancing  to  the  colony 
money  received  from  England.     The  truth  was  that  Shirley's  success 
at  Louisburg  had  created  the  impression  that  he  was  a  man  of  mili 
tary  genius,  which  was  far  from  being  the  case.     He  was  brilliant, 
fertile,  and  plausible ;  but  engaged  in  war  on  a  large  scale  his  real 
incapacity  was  soon  revealed ;  his  enemies,  too,  were  active,  and  he 
had  hardly  begun  to  use  his  powers  as  general-in-chief  when  he  was 
recalled.     Lord  Loudon  came  out  to  take  command  of  the  army,  and 
on  the  death  of  Phips,  the  Lieutenant-governor,  Thomas  Pow- 
nall,  one  of  Shirley's  opponents,  appeared  in  Boston  as  Gov 
ernor.     While  these  changes  were  in  progress,  Massachusetts  contin- 

24 


370  HISTORY  OF  THE 

ued  to  raise  men,  and  take  an  active  part  in  the  war;  but  under  Lord 
Loudon  matters  went  rapidly  from  bad  to  worse.  Shirley's  brilliant 
schemes  were  abandoned,  a  weak  policy  of  defence  was  assumed,  Mont- 
calm  swept  down  upon  Oswego,  and  in  the  following  year  appeared 
on  the  lakes  and  took  Fort  William  Henry.  By  subjecting  provin 
cial  to  royal  officers  Loudon  bred  ill-feeling  in  all  directions,  and  this, 
combined  with  his  wretched  mismanagement  and  overbearing  ways, 
led  to  quarrels  with  the  colonial  assemblies,  and  consequent  refusal 
of  men.  The  colonies  began  to  look  out  for  themselves  without  a 
thought  of  union,  and  the  frontiers  were  defenceless.  At  this  junc 
ture  Pitt  again  came  to  the  head  of  affairs,  provincial  officers  were 
given  proper  standing,  and  twenty  thousand  men  responded  to  his 
summons  for  troops.  Ships  and  men  and  money,  and,  above  all, 
good  generals,  came  from  England,  and  the  war  took  on  a  new 
appearance.  Three  great  expeditions  were  planned — against  Du 
Quesne,  Ticonderoga,  and  Louisburg.  Forbes  took  Fort  Du  Quesne, 
and  Wolfe  and  Amherst  carried  Louisburg ;  but  the  grand  army,  di 
rected  against  Ticonderoga,  in  which  were  five  thousand  men  from 
Massachusetts,  was  repulsed  with  heavy  losses,  including  Lord  Howe, 
to  whom  the  province  raised  a  monument  in  Westminster  Abbey. 
The  only  relief  to  this  misfortune  was  the  capture  of  Fort  Fronte- 
nac  by  the  brave  Bradstreet,  the  defender  of  Oswego,  and  the  most 
distinguished  of  the  Massachusetts  soldiers.  Undeterred,  however, 
by  the  defeat  of  Abercrombie,  Pitt  urged  on  still  more  ex 
tensive  plans  for  the  following  year.  Parliament,  under  his 
guidance,  gave  money  freely  to  the  colonies,  and  Massachusetts  alone 
raised  seven  thousand  men.  The  campaign  was  one  of  unbroken  tri 
umph.  Wolfe,  at  Quebec ;  Stanwix,  on  the  Ohio ;  Johnson,  at  Fort 
Niagara — all  won  great  victories ;  while  on  the  lakes,  where  the  in 
terest  of  New  England  centred,  the  French  were  driven  back  from 
Ticonderoga  to  the  Isle  aux  Noix.  The  next  year  Amherst 
reduced  Montreal,  and  the  empire  of  France  in  America  fell 
forever. 

Pownall,  who  had  been  prudent  and  popular,  was  in  this  same  year 
transferred  to  South  Carolina,  and  was  succeeded  by  Francis  Bernard, 
the  Governor  of  New  Jersey.  Relieved  from  the  stress  of  war,  pub 
lic  attention  was  again  turned  to  home  politics,  and  causes  of  differ 
ence  were  not  wanting.  Shirley  and  others  of  his  stamp  had  in  their 
schemes  of  conquest  eagerly  urged  union,  taxation  of  the  colonies,  and 
a  stronger  exercise  of  the  prerogative ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  the 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  371 

attitude  of  the  colonies  under  Lord  Loudon  had  shown  how  quickly 
they  would  resent  such  doctrines.  The  broad  views  of  Pitt,  and  the 
enthusiasm  he  excited,  had  pushed  aside  all  these  subjects  of  contest ; 
but  with  the  conquest  of  Canada  they  began  once  more  to  come  to 
the  surface.  England  had  already  begun  to  meddle.  The  iron  in 
dustry  had  been  checked,  and  the  Sugar  Act,  raising  a  revenue  on 
that  staple,  and  thus  striking  at  the  chief  commercial  interest  of  New 
England,  was  revived.  Under  this  act  there  had  been  many  seizures 
and  much  ill-feeling,  until  at  last  suit  was  brought  against  the  offi 
cers,  and  decided  in  their  favor.  They  then  asked  for  writs  of  assist 
ance  to  enable  them  to  search  for  contraband  goods.  When 
the  case  came  to  trial,  Thomas  Hutchinson,  the  native  leader 
of  the  Crown  party,  was  on  the  bench  as  chief -justice,  and  James 
Otis  at  the  bar.  In  arguing  against  the  writs,  Oxenbridge  Thacher 
took  the  technical  position  that  the  writs  were  beyond  the  power  of 
the  court ;  but  Otis,  going  outside  of  this,  took  up  in  a  speech  of 
fiery  eloquence  the  broad  ground  that  such  writs  were  an  invasion 
of  the  rights  of  Englishmen.  He  triumphed  at  the  moment,  but 
Hutchinson  succeeded  in  having  the  case  continued,  and  got  author 
ity  from  England  to  issue  the  writs.  The  next  struggle  was  with  the 
Governor,  who,  by  provisions  for  the  payment  of  the  crews  of  ships, 
was  accused  by  the  House  of  striking  at  the  right  of  taxation ;  but 
these  controversies  were  only  the  forerunners  of  the  gathering  tem 
pest,  and  simply  show  a  greater  watchfulness  and  a  more  ready  op 
position  in  Massachusetts  than  elsewhere. 

Far  more  serious  measures  were,  indeed,  preparing  in  England,  where 
a  new  King  had  come  to  the  throne,  and  small  men  occupied 
the  place  once  filled  by  William  Pitt.    Peace,  which  gave  such 
joy  to  the  colonists,  was  merely  the  opportunity  for  the  new  policy. 
A  resolution  was  passed  to  raise  a  revenue  from  America,  and  the 
ships  of  war  were  ordered  to  assist  officers  of  the  customs.     When 
Grenville  came  to  the  head  of  affairs  he  turned  his  attention  to  the 
extension  of  the  stamp  duties  to  the  colonies ;  and  it  cannot  be  doubt 
ed  that  behind  all  this  was  a  far-reaching  purpose  to  entirely  reorgan 
ize  the  colonial  governments  and  make  them  mere  provinces. 
Massachusetts  was  alive  to  the  danger  which  threatened  her,  and 
the  House  instructed  their  agent  to  protest  against  the  Sugar  Act,  as 
well  as  any  other  forms  of  taxation.     Still  the  ministry  pushed  on. 
Notice  was  given  of  the  coming  Stamp  Act,  and  a  bill  raising  reve 
nue  from  sugar  and  other  foreign  products  was  introduced.     Excite- 


372  HISTORY  OF  THE 

ment  in  Massachusetts  rose  rapidly.  Otis  used  both  pen  and  voice 
to  arouse  the  people ;  a  committee  of  correspondence  was  establish 
ed  ;  and  at  last  the  Governor,  after  much  delay,  was  compelled  to 
summon  the  House.  After  much  opposition  in  the  Council,  a  very 
moderate  address  to  the  King  was  agreed  upon,  and  the  representa 
tives  were  greatly  encouraged  by  the  still  stronger  resolution  of  Vir 
ginia  and  New  York.  Early  in  the  following  year  came  tidings  of  the 
passage  of  the  Stamp  Act,  under  the  pressure  of  which  public  feeling 
rapidly  rose,  and  the  popular  determination  to  resist  became 
more  and  more  apparent.  When  the  general  court  assembled 
the  House  voted  that  there  ought  to  be  a  meeting  of  colonial  dele 
gates  ;  and,  despite  the  opposition  of  Hutchinson  and  Bernard,  a  cir 
cular  letter  of  invitation  went  forth  to  all  the  colonies.  All  sympa 
thized,  and  eight  responded  by  sending  delegates,  who  met  with  those 
of  Massachusetts,  headed  by  James  Otis,  at  New  York  in  October. 
This  call  was  the  first  formal  summons  to  union,  and  with  that  great 
act  the  history  of  Massachusetts  is  joined  to  that  of  her  sister  col 
onies. 


ENQLJSH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  373 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

CO!N7NECTICUT  FROM  1635  TO  1765. 

THE  history  of  Massachusetts,  in  its  main  features  and  in  all  exter 
nal  matters — as  in  the  condition  and  form  of  its  society — is  the  his 
tory  of  the  other  three  New  England  colonies,  which  were  offshoots 
of  the  great  colony  of  the  Bay,  and  peopled  by  men  and  women  of 
the  same  hardy  stock.    This  was  especially  true  of  Connecticut.    The 
Plymouth  people  and  the  Dutch  set  up  trading-posts,  and  contend 
ed  for  the  dominion  of  the  Connecticut  valley ;  but  the  future  pos 
sessors  of  that  pleasant  region  came  from  Massachusetts.     Even  in 
the  earliest  days  emigration  was  discussed  in  the  towns  near  Bos 
ton  ;  and,  although  the  magistrates  frowned  upon  the  scheme,  set 
tlers  pushed  out  and  made  their  way  to  the  river  valley.    Two 
years  later  John  Winthrop,  the  younger,  came  out  as  Governor 
of  Connecticut  under  the  patent  of  Lord  Brooke  and  Lord  Say-and- 
Sele,  and,  taking  formal  possession   of  the   country,  tore  down  the 
Dutch  arms  and  built  a  fort  at  Saybrook.    Emigration  now  increased 
rapidly ;  and  a  year  later  Hooker,  the  great  rival  of  Cotton  in  the  cler 
gy  of  Massachusetts — at  the  head  of  the  whole  congregation 
of  the  Newtown  church — journeyed  through  the  woods  and 
settled  at  Hartford.     For  a  year  the  little  towns  thus  founded  were 
governed  under  a  commission  from  Massachusetts,  Winthrop's  settle 
ment  being  little  more  than  a  military  post;  but  when  the  time  of 
the  commission  expired  the  towns  chose  representatives,  and 
held  a  general  court  at  Hartford.     While  the  feeble  colony 
was  thus  struggling  for  existence,  it  was  suddenly  threatened  with  all 
the  horrors  of  Indian  war.     The  trouble  with  the  Pequods  belonged 
to  Massachusetts  and  Plymouth ;  but  while  it  was  a  peril  to  those  col 
onies,  it  meant  extermination  and  death  to  the  settlers  of  Connecticut, 
where  the  savages  were  already  murdering  and  burning  on  the  outly 
ing  farms.    The  colonists  faced  the  danger  with  stern  Puritan  courage. 
Their  fighting  men  were  mustered,  and  put  under  the  command  of  John 


374  HISTORY  OF  THE 

Mason,  who  led  them  against  the  stronghold  of  the  Indians ;  and  in 
the  desperate  assault  upon  the  Pequod  fort  the  men  of  Connecticut 
bore  the  heaviest  share,  and  did  more  than  any  others  to  break  the 
power  of  their  formidable  enemies,  and  give  the  land  the  peace  of 
forty  years.  The  order  for  the  Pequod  war  came  from  the  general 
court  at  Hartford ;  and  its  results  bore  heavily  upon  the  settlers,  bur 
dened  them  with  debts,  and  entailed  serious  losses  by  the  interrup 
tion  of  agriculture.  But  the  men  who  had  overthrown  the  Pequods 
were  able  to  cope  with  any  difficulties.  They  levied  taxes,  toiled  at 
their  farms,  and  in  a  short  time  established  a  government  with  the 
first  written  constitution  in  America.  The  form  of  government  was 
purely  democratic  and  wholly  independent ;  all  power  being  vested  in 
the  freemen,  who  chose  the  general  court,  the  assistants,  and 
Governor.  The  first  Governor  was  John  Haynes,  who  had  al 
ready  held  the  same  office  in  Massachusetts ;  the  second  was  Edward 
Hopkins ;  and  these  two  men  were  elected  alternately  to  the  Govern 
orship  for  many  years. 

During  the  Pequod  war  another  settlement  was  made  in  Connec 
ticut  still  farther  to  the  south.  A  body  of  emigrants  of  property 
and  respectability  —  under  the  leadership  of  John  Davenport,  a  min 
ister,  and  Theophilus  Eaton,  a  wealthy  London  merchant  —  came  to 
Massachusetts.  Deterred  either  by  the  heated  religious  conflicts,  or 
desiring  to  try  plans  of  their  own  undisturbed,  these  new  colonists 
did  not  remain  in  Massachusetts,  but  sailed  away  to  the  south,  and 
settled  at  Quinnipiack,  on  the  Sound,  thirty  miles  west  of  the  Con 
necticut  river,  where  they  lived  for  a  year,  under  no  rule  other  than 
a  compact  to  obey  the  Scriptures.  They  then  met  in  a  barn,  and, 
in  accordance  with  the  Bible  phrase,  chose  seven  men  as  the  "  seven 
pillars,"  who  formed  a  Church,  which,  in  this  most  intensely  religious 
of  all  the  New  England  colonies,  was  the  State,  and  church  member 
ship  and  citizenship  were  of  course  identical.  Two  months  later 
they  again  met,  and  formed  a  civil  government  —  another  indepen 
dent  religions  democracy  like  that  of  Connecticut — with  Theophilus 
Eaton  as  Governor.  The  tide  of  immigration  now  flowed  steadily ; 
other  churches  were  gathered  on  the  New  Haven  model,  and  other 
towns  sprang  up.  Some  fell  within  the  Connecticut  jurisdiction, 
and  sent  representatives  to  Hartford  ;  while  others  for  years  gov 
erned  themselves  each  in  its  own  way.  Springfield  was  resigned  to 
Massachusetts ;  but  the  towns  of  Connecticut  steadily  increased,  and 
the  Puritans  spread  themselves  through  the  river  valley  and  along 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  375 

the  shores  of  the  Sound  and  of  Long  Island.  Slowly  and  surely 
the  English,  who  had  come  to  stay,  drove  out  the  Dutch,  who  mere 
ly  came  to  trade ;  and  they  even  began  to  encroach  upon  Dutch  ter 
ritory.  Despite  their  growth  and  prosperity,  however,  the  situation 
of  these  scattered  settlements  was  precarious,  for  they  were  surround 
ed  by  savages,  and  next  door  to  the  Dutch ;  so  that  they  felt  strong 
ly  the  need  of  union,  and  their  efforts  finally  resulted  in  the 
formation  of  the  New  England  Confederacy,  which  greatly 
strengthened  the  position  of  Connecticut  and  New  Haven.  It  ena 
bled  the  latter  to  look  after  her  traders  in  the  Delaware,  with  whom 
the  Swedes  had  meddled,  and  it  gave  both  colonies  great  weight  in 
their  difficulties  with  the  Dutch,  which  now  came  thick  and  fast,  in 
volving  questions  of  boundary  jurisdiction  and  payment  of  duties  on 
ships.  In  domestic  affairs  the  Connecticut  people  prospered  steadily. 
Both  settlements  increased,  the  laws  were  codified,  and  government  was 
administered  in  the  most  rigid  Puritan  fashion,  and  by  constantly  re- 
elected  magistrates. 

Notwithstanding  the  advantages  of  the  confederacy,  however,  every 
thing  did  not  go  smoothly.     Connecticut  undertook  to  lay  a  duty 
upon  the  Springfield  vessels  passing  Saybrook ;  Massachusetts 
1649*  remonstrated,  and  the  quarrel,  which  threatened  to  break  up 
the  confederacy,  was  protracted  for  nearly  two  years.     The 
preponderating  influence  of  Massachusetts  could  not  be  overcome,  and 
the  smaller  colonies  had  to  sacrifice  their  pride,  and  submit,  as  a  rule, 
to  her  dictation.     In  the  year  following  Stuyvesant  came  to  Hartford, 
and  soon  after  a  boundary  was  settled,  which  was  much  to  the 
advantage  of  the  English ;  but  still,  Connecticut  and  New  Ha 
ven  remained  uneasy  and  suspicious,  and  rumors  of  Indian  conspira 
cies,  instigated  by  the  Dutch,  together  with  the  war  in  Europe, 
moved  them  to  put  their  defences  in  order,  and  urge  upon  the 
confederacy  the  necessity  of  war.     Massachusetts  held  back ;  her  peo 
ple  were  disinclined  to  fight  unless  the  need  was  very  clear,  and  the 
proofs  of  Dutch  hostility  and  Indian  conspiracy  were  by  no  means  in 
disputable.    The  commissioners,  however,  with  the  exception  of  Brad- 
street,  voted  for  war,  and  assigned  the  quotas  of  the  colonies;  but  Mas 
sachusetts  refused  to  be  bound,  and,  with  Connecticut  and  New  Haven 
clamoring  for  war,  it  seemed,  after  a  prolonged  controversy,  as  if  the 
union  must  be  dissolved.    A  similar  policy  was  pursued  then,  and  later, 
by  Massachusetts,  in  regard  to  the  Nyantics,  when  the  smaller  colonies 
were  again  compelled  to  give  way.     So  long  as  the  confederacy  acted 


376  HISTORY  OF  THE 

in  accordance  with  the  wishes  of  Massachusetts,  all  went  well ;  but 
when  she  differed  from  the  others,  she  was  ready  to  dissolve  the 
union  rather  than  yield.     Despairing  of  aid  from  Massachusetts,  Con 
necticut  and  New  Haven  at  an  early  day  appealed  to  England  for 
help,  and  received  with  great  joy  the  news  of  the  setting  forth 
of  Leverett  and  Sedgewick  with  ships  and  men.     Both  colo 
nies  eagerly  prepared  for  the  expedition  against  New  Netherlands, 
and  raised  troops  and  voted  money;  but  peace  in  Europe  came  in 
season  to  prevent  the  expedition,  and  saved  the  Dutch  from  the  colo 
nists  of  Connecticut,  to  the  great  chagrin  of  the  latter.     In  the  tran 
quillity  brought  by  peace,  domestic  affairs  were  ordered  and  regu 
lated,  and  both  colonies  continued  to  thrive  as  before,  and  increase 
in  population  and  wealth.     This  was  particularly  true  of  Con 
necticut,  who  spread  her  settlements  in  all  directions,  and  fur 
ther  strengthened  herself  by  choosing  John  Winthrop,  the  younger, 
Governor. 

The  wisdom  of  this  choice  was  soon  shown.  At  the  Restoration, 
New  Haven  and  Connecticut  found  themselves  confronted  by 
a  Stuart  king,  and  utterly  unprotected  by  a  charter,  as  was  the 
case  with  Massachusetts.  New  Haven  hesitated,  and  only  acknowledged 
and  proclaimed  Charles  after  much  delay ;  but  Connecticut  acted  at 
once.  An  address,  in  flattering  language,  was  drawn  up  and  given  to 
Winthrop,  who  was  despatched  to  London  to  present  it  to  the  King, 
and  was  further  empowered  to  obtain  a  confirmation  of  the  Say-and- 
Sele  patent,  or,  if  possible,  a  royal  charter.  Winthrop  was  admira 
bly  adapted  for  the  work.  He  was  graceful,  courteous,  diplomatic ;  he 
not  only  engaged  the  assistance  of  all  sympathizers  with  the  Puritans, 
but  by  his  own  address  and  by  his  scientific  tastes  he  had  won  many 
friends,  especially  among  the  members  of  the  Royal  Society,  just  then 
in  high  favor  with  Charles.  By  his  own  skill,  and  aided  by  the  min 
isterial  desire  to  break  the  confederacy,  raise  up  a  rival  to  Massachu 
setts,  and  extinguish  the  intense  Puritanism  of  New  Haven,  with  its  re 
ligious  franchise,  he  obtained  in  a  few  months  a  charter  of  the  most 
liberal  kind.  Nineteen  patentees,  and  such  as  they  should  as 
sociate  with  themselves,  were  constituted  a  corporation,  under 
the  title  of  the  Governor  and  Company  of  Connecticut.  All  power  was 
given  to  the  freemen  of  the  towns,  who  were  to  choose  a  governor,  dep 
uty,  assistants,  and  representatives,  and  the  only  restriction  was  the  very 
vague  one  that  the  laws  should  not  be  contrary  to  those  of  England. 
To  this  corporation  was  given  all  the  territory  from  Narragansett  Bay 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  377 

to  the  Pacific,  thus  including  land  from  Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island, 
and  New  Netherlands,  and  the  whole  of  New  Haven.  Winthrop  had 
promised  that  New  Haven  should  have  the  liberty  of  choice ;  but  the 
people  of  Connecticut,  who  received  the  charter  with  great  joy,  had 
no  such  views,  and  set  to  work  at  once  to  incorporate  towns  and  ter 
ritory  in  all  directions,  and  to  unite  New  Haven  without  delay  or  con 
cession.  New  Haven  stubbornly  resisted,  and  was  supported  at  the 
meeting  of  the  Federal  commissioners  by  Massachusetts  and  Plym 
outh  ;  but  Connecticut  went  on  its  way,  despite  the  remonstrances  of 
Winthrop,  and  rapidly  drew  in  the  southern  towns.  New  Haven  held 
out  through  all  with  like  obstinacy,  as  town  after  town  fell  away 
from  her  jurisdiction,  until  the  arrival  of  the  royal  commis 
sioners,  and  their  subsequent  conquest  of  New  York.  Only 
three  towns  then  remained  outside  the  Connecticut  government,  and 
it  was  obvious  that  the  whole  of  southern  Connecticut,  and  New 
Haven  as  well,  would  be  absorbed  in  New  York,  unless  the  controver 
sy  was  quickly  ended.  A  consolidation  was  the  only  hope  of  escape, 
and  New  Haven,  with  grief  and  bitterness,  gave  way ;  her  government 
was  dissolved,  her  towns  sent  representatives  to  Hartford,  and  her 
separate  existence  came  to  an  end.  The  union  greatly  strengthened 
their  position,  but  they  still  had  to  deal  with  the  royal  commission 
ers,  who,  having  settled  affairs  in  New  York,  then  visited  the 
smaller  New  England  colonies,  reserving  Massachusetts  to  the 
last.  They  made  the  same  demands  of  Connecticut  which  had  been 
made  and  complied  with  in  Plymouth,  asking  that  all  householders 
should  take  the  oath  of  allegiance,  and  that  justice  should  be  admin 
istered  in  the  King's  name ;  that  all  men  of  competent  estate  should 
be  admitted  as  freemen,  and  to  office ;  that  all  persons  of  orthodox 
opinions  and  decent  lives  should  be  admitted  to  communion,  and  that 
all  laws  derogatory  to  the  King  should  be  repealed.  These  requests 
were  not  in  conflict  either  with  the  practice  or  policy  of  Connecticut, 
and  were  at  once  obeyed;  but  they  were  a  bitter  infliction  to  the 
recently  annexed  New  Haven  towns,  where  a  system  of  Church  and 
State  had  prevailed  even  more  rigid  than  that  of  Massachusetts.  But 
as  Connecticut  was  in  the  ascendant,  her  policy  had  to  be  followed, 
and  New  Haven  was  left  to  make  the  best  of  it. 

Quiet  and  prosperity  reigned  after  the  departure  of  the  royal  com 
missioners,  and  Winthrop  was  continued  from  year  to  year  in  the  of 
fice  of  Governor.  The  Federal  commissioners  resumed  their  meet 
ings;  but  the  confederacy,  shorn  of  one  member  by  the  annexation 


378  HISTORY  OF  THE 

of  New  Haven,  seemed  to  have  lost  not  only  its  balance,  but  its  ac 
tivity  as  well.     The  most  exciting  subjects  of  public  interest  during 
these  years  were  a  prolonged  discussion  about  baptism,  which  led  to 
a  synod,  and  a  proposition  from  Nicolls  to  join  in  his  expedition 
against  Canada,  which  met  with  a  very  cold  reception.     The  tran 
quillity  of  the  colony  was  at  last  broken  by  the  reappearance 
of  their  former  foes — the  Dutch — and  the  recon quest  of  New 
York.     The  old  spirit  was  again  awakened  in  Connecticut.     She  in 
terfered  for  the  protection  of  the  Long  Island  towns,  sent  defiant 
messages  to  the  Dutch — who  treated  them  contemptuously — raised 
troops,  and  appealed  to  the  Federal  commissioners.     Massachusetts, 
as-  of  yore,  held  back,  but  finally  began  to  arm  ;  and  the  Connecticut 
forces  had  already  repulsed  the  Dutch  on  Long  Island,  when 
news  came  of  peace,  and  of  the  transfer  of  New  York  to  the 
English,  followed  very  shortly  by  the  appearance  of  Major  Edmund 
Andros  as  Governor  of  New  York,  which,  under  the  new  patent  taken 
out  by  the  duke,  extended  to  the  Connecticut  river.     Andros  at  once 
raised  his  claim  to  western  Connecticut,  and  sent  copies  of  the 
patent  to  Hartford.     The  court  replied  that  the  boundaries 
had  been  settled  by  the  royal  commission,  and  denied  that  Andros 
had  any  rights.     Hearing  of  Indian  troubles,  however,  Andros  an 
nounced  that  he  must  attend  to  the  defence  of  the  duke's  property, 
and  accordingly  appeared  at  Saybrook,  whither  Connecticut  troops  had 
been  sent  with  instructions  to  receive  him  civilly,  but  prevent  his  pas 
sage  up  the  river  by  force  if  necessary.     Andros  landed,  read  the  pat 
ent  and  his  commission,  heard  a  protest  read,  and  then  departed,  ut 
terly  unable  to  effect  anything. 

The  rumors  of  Indian  wars,  which  had  furnished  an  excuse  for  the 
visit  of  Andros,  were  the  first  mutterings  of  the  terrible  storm  of  Phil 
ip's  war.  In  that  fierce  conflict  Connecticut  did  her  share  of  gallant 
fighting,  although,  from  her  position,  she  suffered  but  little  from  In 
dian  attack,  except  on  her  northern  frontier,  and  the  current  of  her 
prosperous  growth  was  not  seriously  checked.  In  the  first  year 
of  the  war  she  lost  by  death  her  excellent  Governor,  the  young 
er  Winthrop ;  but  the  government  went  on  as  successfully  and  quietly 
as  ever;  agriculture  improved,  and  trade  grew  and  extended.  The  only 
serious  trouble  arose  from  the  complications  in  regard  to  the  Rhode 
Island  boundary,  a  tangled  dispute  which  was  mixed  up  with  various 
other  claims  by  the  Atherton  Company  and  by  Massachusetts,  and 
which  was  carried  hither  and  thither  from  colony  to  colony,  and  from 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  379 

the  Federal  commissioners  to  the  Privy  Council.     Feeling  at  last  ran 
so  high  against  the  Rhode  Island  people,  who  continued  to  come  upon 
the  disputed  lands,  that  Connecticut  began  to  arm  to  repel  the 
intruders.     This  induced  a  pause,  and  two  years  later  colonial 
commissioners,  appointed  by  the  King,  heard  the  case,  and  set  aside 
the  claims  of  Rhode  Island,  who  refused  to  appear.     During 
all  these  years  Connecticut  had  constantly  given  expression  to 
the  loyalty  which  distinguished  her  from  the  other  New  England  col 
onies  ;  and  Randolph,  then  in  the  midst  of  his  warfare  upon  Massachu 
setts,  not  only  left  Connecticut  alone,  but  even  cultivated  her  good 
will.     At  the  meeting  of  the  boundary  commission,  he  started  an  old 
claim  of  the  Duke  of  Hamilton  against  the  colony  for  lands ;  anei 
though  the  commission  would  only  transmit  the  papers,  and  the  case 
finally  went  against  the  claimants,  it  remained  open,  and  an 
noyed  Connecticut  for  many  years.     Not  long  after,  the  con 
federation,  which  had  been  languishing,  held  its  last  meeting,  and  the 
death  of  Charles  II.  left  Connecticut  to  deal  with  the  difficul 
ties  of  Stuart  rule,  which  she  had  hitherto  so  prudently  and 
successfully  avoided. 

James  II.  was  at  once  proclaimed,  and  loyal  addresses  of  condolence, 
and  congratulation,  and  beseeching  favor  were  sent  to  England,  where 
they  arrived  about  the  same  time  as  a  list  of  charges  from  Randolph, 
who  was  now  giving  attention  to  Connecticut.  His  accusations  in 
volved  the  crimes  of  independent  government,  laws  contrary  to  those 
of  England,  hostility  to  the  Established  Church,  and  more  of  the 
same  sort,  with  which  long  practice  had  made  Randolph  familiar. 
The  charges  were  referred  to  the  attorney-general,  with  orders  to  pre 
pare  a  writ  of  quo  warranto,  and  in  the  following  year  Ran 
dolph  sent  word  from  Boston  that  he  was  the  bearer  of  the 
writ.  He  omitted  to  state  that  the  time  for  appearance  to  contest 
the  writ  had  passed ;  but  he  demanded  that  the  colony  should  yield 
up  its  charter  without  more  ado  and  submit.  Two  weeks  later  he 
appeared  in  person  at  Hartford  to  urge  his  demands,  and  the  court  re 
plied  by  a  humble  address  to  the  King,  and  by  appointing  an  agent  to 
represent  them  and  employ  counsel.  They  likewise  declined  to  come 
under  the  government  of  Dudley,  even  at  the  risk  of  annexation  to 
New  York,  and  they  judiciously  tried  to  keep  on  good  terms  with 
Dongan ;  but  their  hearts  were  heavy,  they  had  slight  expectations 
of  justice  from  the  English  courts,  and  the  arrival  of  Andros  as  Gov 
ernor-general  seemed  to  put  an  end  to  all  hopes.  Andros  sent  imme- 


380  HISTORY  OF  THE 

diate  notice  to  the  colony  that  he  expected  the  surrender  of  the  char 
ter,  and  Randolph  in  insolent  terms  informed  them  that  an 
other  writ  had  been  issued.  The  government  congratulated 
Aiidros  upon  his  arrival,  and  sent  a  letter  couched  in  ambiguous  lan 
guage  to  the  Secretary  of  State,  Lord  Sunderland,  who  construed  it 
as  a  submission  ;  but  beyond  this  they  would  not  go.  They  met 
and  transacted  no  business,  while  Andros  pushed  intrigues  for  surren 
der  in  all  directions,  and  their  agent  Whiting,  in  London,  although 
with  slight  hope,  succeeded  in  putting  off  the  dreaded  trial  of  the 
quo  warranto.  At  last  Andros  resolved  to  go  in  person  to  Connec 
ticut,  and  with  a  large  escort  proceeded  to  Hartford,  where  he  met 
the  Governor  and  Council,  to  whom  the  court  had  intrusted  the  sole 
management  of  their  desperate  affairs.  In  the  evening  a  conference 
was  held,  and  tradition  asserts  that  the  lights  were  suddenly  extin 
guished,  and  the  charter  carried  off  and  concealed.  Either  the  orig 
inal  or  a  duplicate  was  safely  preserved ;  and  it  is  also  certain  that 
the  next  day  Andros  took  possession,  was  acknowledged,  and  appoint 
ed  counsellors,  and  that  the  free -charter  government  of  Connecticut 
was,  in  appearance  at  least,  finally  overthrown.  Andros  interfered  but 
little  with  Connecticut,  which  remained  quiet,  and  bided  its  time 
without  murmuring.  When  the  news  arrived  of  the  deposi 
tion  of  Andros,  that  time  had  come.  The  principal  men  of 
the  towns  came  together,  the  old  government  with  the  same  officers 
was  re-established,  the  courts  were  opened,  the  military  organization 
was  confirmed,  and  a  month  later  the  general  court  again  convened, 
and  joyfully  proclaimed  William  and  Mary.  The  shrewd  and  concili 
atory  policy  of  Connecticut,  which  Massachusetts  had  been  too  strong 
and  too  proud  to  adopt,  had  postponed  Randolph's  attacks  until  the 
accession  of  James.  By  this  delay  Connecticut  saved  her  charter; 
while  Massachusetts,  where  every  inch  of  ground  was  contested,  lost 
hers.  After  the  attack  was  made  the  same  yielding  policy  was  pur 
sued,  and  fortune  also  favored  Connecticut.  Her  apparent  submis 
sion,  and  the  delays  of  the  law  encouraged  by  her  agent,  resulted  in 
leaving  her  charter  untouched  when  the  Revolution  came.  Connecti 
cut,  by  addresses  and  through  her  agent,  begged  for  a  formal  confir 
mation,  which  was  never  given ;  but  Increase  Mather  obtained  from 
the  law-officers  of  the  Crown  the  opinion,  that  as  the  surrender  had 
not  been  under  the  common  seal,  nor  enrolled,  nor  recorded,  and  as 
there  was  no  judgment  of  record  against  it,  the  charter  was  intact. 
Efforts  were  made  to  destroy  it,  and  at  one  time  to  annex  Connecti- 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  381 

cut  to  New  York,  but  all  proved  futile.     The  free  charter  government 
was  safe. 

From  the  accession  of  William  and  Mary  until  the  Revolution,  the  af 
fairs  of  Connecticut  were  conducted  in  the  old,  simple,  and  quiet  fash 
ion.  With  the  exception  of  Rhode  Island,  it  was  the  only  one  of  all 
the  colonies  which  was  wholly  free  from  the  contests  over  salaries,  fees, 
prerogatives,  rights,  and  privileges  which  form  so  marked  a  feature  in 
the  colonial  history  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Having  a  government 
chosen  by  the  freemen  throughout,  there  was  no  representative  of  the 
Crown  to  fight  with,  and  no  liberties  to  be  jealously  guarded,  while 
the  dangers  of  outside  interference  practically  disappeared  with  the 
Stuarts.  Connecticut  readily  took  part  in  aiding  her  neighbors  in 
their  difficulties;  helping  Massachusetts  in  the  east  with  men  and 
money,  and  sustaining  Leisler  by  sending  soldiers.  In  the  luckless 
Canadian  expedition,  which  was  to  have  met  Phips  at  Montreal,  Con 
necticut  had  a  leading  part,  and  sharp  quarrels  with  Leisler.  She  suc 
cessfully  kept  at  arm's-length  the  right  of  appeal  from  her  courts  to 
England,  and  in  the  matter  of  military  control  resisted  the  efforts  to 
give  it  to  Phips  and  Fletcher ;  sending  the  latter  home  from  a 
visit  to  Hartford,  helpless  and  grumbling  at  the  curt  refusal 
of  the  Puritan  magistrates.  Free  from  harassing  Indian  wars  and  from 
the  religious  troubles  of  Rhode  Island,  with  an  independent  govern 
ment,  Connecticut  was  the  most  peaceful,  the  most  prosperous,  and  the 
happiest  of  the  colonies.  Her  schools  flourished,  her  towns  throve, 
the  franchise  was  extended,  legislation  improved,  debt  avoided,  faithful 
magistrates  continued  long  in  office,  and  great  attention  paid  to  every 
thing  calculated  to  improve  the  welfare  of  the  people.  The  only  trou 
blesome  question  was  that  of  boundaries  on  the  north  and  east,  which 
remained  open  for  many  years,  and  gave  rise  to  much  heart-burning ; 
until  finally,  on  the  east,  the  Rhode  Island  construction  was  accepted. 
Connecticut  took  little  part  in  Queen  Anne's  war  during  its  early 
years,  and  refused  to  help  Dudley,  for  whom  she  had  no  love, 
in  his  expedition  against  Port  Royal ;  but  that  same  year, 
Fitz-John  Winthrop,  who  had  been  Governor  for  ten  years,  died,  and 
was  succeeded  by  Gurdon  Saltonstall,  who  induced  the  adoption  of 
a  more  energetic  war  policy.  For  the  Canadian  expedition  of  1709, 
which  never  even  reached  the  border,  Connecticut  raised  men  and 
money ;  the  next  year  she  sent  three  hundred  men  and  five  transports 
to  share  in  the  capture  of  Port  Royal,  and  again  she  sent  men  under 
the  lead  of  Saltonstall  as  far  as  Albany,  to  support  the  disastrous  ex- 


382  HISTORY  OF  THE 

pcdition  attempted  by  Walker  and  Hill  in  the  St.  Lawrence.    Money 
for  these  campaigns  was  obtained  by  bills  of  credit;  but  the 
financial  arrangements  were   so  sound  that  the  bills  hardly 
depreciated  at  all,  and  the  debt  was  slowly  and  surely  extinguished. 
Not  long  after  the  end  of  the  war  the  northern  boundary  was 
finally  settled,  and  Connecticut  gained  over  a  hundred  thou 
sand  acres.    During  this  period  Dudley  was  at  work  against  the  char 
ter,  and  a  bill  was  introduced  in  Parliament  to  vacate  all  charters ; 
but  despite  this,  and  trouble  with  the  Mohegan  claims,  all  attacks 
were  warded  off.     During  the  war,  too,  the  ecclesiastical  system  was 
reorganized,  with  provision  for  association,  and  for  a  closer  union 
than  had  hitherto  been  the  custom  in  New  England ;  while  more  im 
portant  than  any  other  event  in  the  domestic  history  of  the  time  was 
the  foundation  and  development  of  Yale  College. 

In  the  years  which  followed  the  accession  of  the  House  of  Bruns 
wick,  there  is  the  same  quiet  growth,  thrift,  and  prosperity,  and  the 
same  uneventful  history  to  be  recorded  of  Connecticut.  Sporadic  at 
tacks  of  varying  danger  were  made  against  the  charter,  principally  in 
stigated  by  merchants  annoyed  at  the  disregard  of  the  laws  of  trade ; 
but  they  were  all  defeated  by  the  exertions  of  Ashurst,  and,  above 
all,  of  Jeremiah  Dummer,  the  great  defender  of  the  charters.  Out 
side  of  this  there  was  little  to  break  the  repose  of  the  colony.  Con 
necticut  took  no  part  in  the  wars  stirred  up  by  Rasle,  and  the  most 
serious  affairs  were  those  of  the  college,  the  Mohegan  claims,  the  fa 
naticism  of  the  Rogerenes,  and  the  final  running  of  the  Rhode  Island 
line.  After  sixteen  years  of  wise,  strong  rule,  and  of  great  induence 
during  a  period  of  transition,  and  often  of  difficulty,  Gurdon 
Saltonstall  died,  and  was  succeeded  by  Joseph  Talcott,  who  for 
a  like  period  continued  in  office,  until  he,  too,  was  removed  by  death. 
During  Talcott's  long  term,  the  happy  period  of  the  quieta  non  mo- 
vere  policy  of  Robert  Walpole,  Connecticut  history  offers  nothing  for 
record  except  the  more  rapid  growth  of  the  colony  in  trade,  popula 
tion,  and  prosperity,  and  the  quick  increase  of  towns.  The  general 
courts  came  and  went  year  after  year,  made  necessary  and  wholesome 
laws,  kept  the  finances  sound  and  pure,  and  free  from  the  paper  con 
tagion,  encouraged  their  college,  looked  after  their  rights  in  England, 
and  carried  on  a  steady,  frugal  government,  which  was  probably  one 
of  the  best  the  world  has  ever  seen,  and  offers  no  material  for 
history.  When  Talcott  died,  his  lieutenant,  Jonathan  Law,  was 
promoted,  and  Roger  Wolcott  was  put  in  the  place  of  Law — a  change 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  383 

of  magistrates  which  made  no  alteration  whatever  in  the  conduct  of 
public  affairs,  but  was  very  nearly  coincident  with  the  close  of  the  pe 
riod  of  profound  peace  and  the  outbreak  of  the  wretched  war  with 
Spain,  to  which  Connecticut  freely  gave  both  money  and  men,  most 
of  whom  never  returned  from  Vernon's  expedition.  The  war  drag 
ged  along,  until  at  last  France  entered  the  field;  and  the  dread  of 
their  old  enemy,  with  the  still  fresh  recollection  of  his  terrible  raids 
from  the  north,  roused  all  New  England.  When  Shirley's  plan  was 
proposed,  Governor  Law  called  a  special  court,  and  Connecti 
cut  readily  sent  five  hundred  men,  under  the  command  of 
Lieutenant-governor  Roger  Wolcott,  to  take  part  in  the  capture  and 
defence  of  Louisburg,  which  reflected  so  much  glory  on  New  England. 
In  the  expedition  of  the  following  year,  which  was  one  of  the  many 
fruitless  attempts  to  conquer  Canada,  Connecticut  again  took  an  ac 
tive  part,  and  raised  a  thousand  men ;  but  peace  soon  put  an  end  to 
her  exertions,  which  had  burdened  the  colony  with  a  heavy  debt,  a 
source  of  trouble  previously  unknown,  and  one  which  weighed  upon 
the  people  for  many  years.  In  the  great  French  war  to  which  that 
of  1744  was  but  a  preliminary,  the  conduct  of  Connecticut  contin 
ued  the  same.  With  an  independent  and  united  government  she 
was  spared  political  wrangles,  and  from  beginning  to  end  poured 
forth  men  and  money  against  England's  enemies  and  her  own.  The 
part  taken  by  Connecticut  in  the  French  war  corresponded  with  that 
of  Massachusetts,  and  there  is  no  need  to  rehearse  again  the  events  of 
that  great  struggle.  It  left  no  mark  upon  Connecticut  except  in  the 
loss  of  life  and  treasure,  and  in  the  benefit  less  important  to  her  than 
to  others  of  the  removal  of  the  constant  peril  at  the  north. 

Connecticut  was  one  of  the  first  among  the  colonies  to  raise  oppo 
sition  to  the  policy  of  taxation,  which  soon  succeeded  the  victories  of 
the  war ;  and  when  the  news  of  the  coming  Stamp  Act  reached  Hart 
ford,  able  arguments  and  defences  of  the  chartered  rights,  and  of  tho 
illegality  of  such  taxation,  were  sent  to  England  in  charge  of  the  agent, 
Jared  Ingersoll.  After  this  prompt  action  the  condition  of  public  feel 
ing  seemed  to  become  apathetic,  probably  from  long  years  of  uninter 
rupted  independence,  and  from  a  disbelief  in  the  reality  of  the  danger ; 
so  that  when  the  news  arrived  that  the  Stamp  Act  had  become  law, 
it  seemed  as  if  in  the  independent  colony  of  Connecticut  it  was  about 
to  find  its  strongest  support.  Governor  Fitch,  and  many  of 
the  leading  men  and  ministers,  counselled  submission ;  but  they 
had  strangely  mistaken  the  people  among  whom  they  lived.  The  cau- 


384  HISTORY  OF  THE 

tious,  yielding  policy  of  the  previous  century  had  long  since  ceased  to 
be  possible.  Articles  began  to  appear  in  the  newspapers,  resistance 
began  to  crop  up  here  and  there,  the  feeling  of  hostility,  the  dread  of 
oppression  spread  rapidly,  and  Sons  of  Liberty  were  soon  numerous  and 
active.  When  Governor  Fitch  proposed  to  the  Council  to  take  the 
oath,  Colonel  Trumbull  left  the  room,  followed  by  a  majority  of  the 
assistants ;  and  the  arrival  of  Ingersoll  with  a  commission  as  Stamp 
Collector  was  the  signal  for  a  general  rising  in  all  the  towns.  The 
Sons  of  Liberty  began  to  gather.  Ingersoll  was  met  on  the  road  by 
large  bodies  of  armed  men,  and  forced  to  resign  his  office.  His  cap 
tors  rode  with  him  to  Hartford,  where  the  ceremony  was  repeated, 
and  where  the  timid  Governor  was  instructed  in  his  duty  by  Colonel 
Putnam,  one  of  the  popular  leaders.  This  event  occurred  in  Septem 
ber,  very  early  in  the  contest,  for  Connecticut  had  no  one  to  thwart 
the  will  of  the  people ;  and  in  the  following  month  delegates,  chosen 
by  the  general  court,  met  with  those  of  the  other  colonies  in  Congress 
at  New  York. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  385 


CHAPTER   XX. 

RHODE  ISLAND  FROM  1636  TO  1765. 

VERT  different  from  the  strong,  well-equipped  bands  of  prosperous 
Englishmen  who  left  Massachusetts  to  win  the  region  of  the  Con 
necticut  were  those  who  founded  the  little  colony  of  Rhode  Island. 
Roger  Williams,  fleeing  from  banishment,  and  from  a  government 
to  which  he  would  not  submit,  passed  a  dreary  winter  among  the 
Indians,  was  warned  off  by  the  Plymouth  people,  and  finally, 
with  five  companions,  established  at  the  head  of  Narragansett 
Bay  a  little  settlement  to  which  he  gave  the  name  of  Providence. 
For  ten  years  scarcely  anything  is  known  of  the  fortunes  of  this 
small  and  struggling  community.     They  formed  a  township  where 
the   majority  of  householders,  and  such   as  they  chose  to   admit, 
ruled ;  while  William s's  relations  with  the  Indians,  and  knowledge  of 
their  language,  served  to  protect  them  from  the  savages;   and  two 
years   after  their   arrival,  another   fierce    conflict   in   Massachusetts 
brought  fresh  exiles  to  Rhode  Island.     Mrs.  Hutchinson  and  her 
friends,  acting  on  the  advice  of  Williams,  bought  from  the 
Indians  the  Island  of  Aquetnet,  and  formed  a  settlement  at 
Portsmouth.     There  they  organized  a  government,  with  Coddington 
as  judge,  and  Aspinwall  as  secretary ;  but  they  brought  faction  and 
dissension  with  them,  and  before  the  year  was  out  Coddington  was 
displaced,  and  Aspinwall  formally  accused  of  seditious  practices.    Cod 
dington  and  his  friends  thereupon  went  farther  south,  and 
founded  Newport.     Emigrants  came  in  small  numbers;  they 
acknowledged  their  allegiance  to  the  King,  and  wrote  to  Vane  to  get 
a  patent.     In  another  year  the  divided  settlements  were  united,  the 
offices  were  shared  between  them,  and  Coddington  was  once  more 
chosen  Governor.     These  loosely  organized  communities  went  on  in 
this  way  for  two  years  quarrelling  among  themselves,  until  the  gener 
al  court  of  Rhode  Island  appointed  a  committee  to  take  steps  to  pro 
cure  a  patent.     The  people  of  Providence  had  a  similar  desire,  and 

25 


386  HISTORY  OF  THE 

Roger  Williams  was  finally  selected,  and  sent  to  England  to  act  for 
them  all.     He  sailed  from  New  Amsterdam,  and  on  his  arrival 
was  well  received  in  London,  where  his  views  as  to  freedom  of 
conscience  were  just  then  in  favor. 

The  first  settlers  of  both  Providence  and  Newport  were  the  ex 
treme  fanatics  who  always  come  to  the  surface  in  a  period  of  in 
tense  religious  fervor.  They  were  men  and  women  who  could  not 
submit  to  a  strong  and  well-ordered  government — the  factious  and 
turbulent  elements  of  the  rigid,  order-loving,  and  strong  communities 
of  Connecticut  and  Massachusetts.  Roger  Williams,  the  ablest  and 
most  imaginative  among  them,  had  been  driven  out  not  because  he 
believed  in  freedom  of  conscience,  but  because  his  acts  were  political 
ly  dangerous.  To  a  man  of  his  liberal  but  loose  mind,  the  treatment 
he  had  received  nourished  the  belief  in  religious  toleration,  and  he 
engrafted  that  principle  on  the  settlements  he  founded,  and  then  de 
viated  from  it  in  various  ways  when  he  came  to  face  the  task  of 
government.  The  other  settlers  of  Rhode  Island,  less  highly  endow 
ed  than  Williams,  were  far  more  factious  and  turbulent ;  and  when 
they  were  driven  from  Massachusetts,  and  had  no  government  to  re 
sist,  they  fell  to  quarrelling  among  themselves,  and  kept  up  their 
wrangles  for  a  long  series  of  years.  The  disorderly  character  of 
these  settlements  shut  them  out  from  the  confederacy,  checked  their 
growth,  and  produced  endless  disputes,  of  which  the  detailed  history 
is  neither  instructive  nor  profitable.  For  the  present  purpose  it  is 
sufficient  to  sketch  them  in  the  barest  outline,  and  there  is  no  need 
to  follow  them  out  or  attempt  to  unravel  the  tangled  skein  of  their 
history. 

The  first  serious  disturbance  involved  Massachusetts.  One  of  Wil- 
liams's  settlements  was  much  annoyed  by  the  presence  of  a  lawless 
and  disorderly  set  of  men  under  the  lead  of  Gorton,  Holden,  and 
Greene,  who  had  all  been  in  trouble,  and  been  punished  and  driven 
out  of  Massachusetts  and  Plymouth,  and  who,  after  figuring  in  New 
port  and  elsewhere,  had  finally  settled  down  near  Providence,  where 
they  became  a  curse  to  the  neighboring  country.  The  settlers  on  the 
Pawtuxet  appealed  to  Massachusetts  for  protection,  and  were  told  that 
nothing  could  be  done  unless  they  acknowledged  some  jurisdiction. 
They  accordingly  came  under  the  government  of  Massachusetts,  while 
the  affair  was  further  complicated  by  conflicting  Indian  claims,  and  by 
a  war  between  the  Narragansetts  and  Mohegans,  in  which  Miantonomo 
was  captured  by  Uncas  and  killed.  At  last  Massachusetts  warned  off 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  387 

Gorton  and  his  followers.  Holden  returned  an  insulting  answer ;  and 
then  commissioners  came  with  soldiers,  the  settlement  was  broken  up, 
and  Gorton  and  his  followers  brought  as  prisoners  to  Boston,  where 
they  were  sentenced  to  jail  and  hard  labor  for  blasphemy — Massachu 
setts  not  caring  to  deal  with  them  for  appeals  to  the  King  and 
meddling  with  the  Indians.  After  a  few  months  they  were  re 
leased,  returned  to  Rhode  Island,  regained  their  old  influence  with  the 
Narragansetts — who  were  persuaded  to  put  themselves  and  their  land 
under  the  dominion  of  the  King — and  then  proceeded  to  excite  them 
against  Massachusetts.  For  a  time  it  seemed  as  if  there  would  be  a 
great  Indian  war;  but  the  Narragansetts  were  finally  brought  to  terms, 
a  truce  was  concluded,  the  danger  was  avoided  for  the  moment,  and 
the  kindly  efforts  of  Gorton  and  his  friends  were  frustrated.  Gorton, 
however,  who  was  full  of  energy,  carried  his  grievances  to  England, 
where  he  got  from  the  commissioners  of  Parliament  an  order  that  his 
people  should  be  undisturbed,  and  should  be  allowed  to  pass  peace 
ably  to  their  settlements.  His  further  attempts  were  checked  as  soon 
as  Winslow  arrived  as  agent  of  Massachusetts ;  and  when  Gorton  went 
out  he  was  arrested  at  Boston,  and  released  only  in  consideration  of  a 
letter  from  the  Earl  of  Warwick.  He  then  betook  himself  to  Shawo- 
met,  which  received  the  name  of  Warwick ;  and  the  turbulent 
settlement  finally  gave  up  quarrelling,  and  became  orderly  and 
decent.  The  whole  of  the  Gorton  affair  is  typical  of  the  class  of  peo 
ple  who  gathered  in  Rhode  Island.  Gorton  and  his  friends  were  per 
haps  the  worst  of  their  kind,  but  they  were  nevertheless  representative. 
They  were  as  sturdy,  pertinacious,  and  bold  as  the  Puritans  of  Massa 
chusetts,  but  had  none  of  the  love  of  rigid  order  or  of  the  strong  con 
servatism  which  reigned  in  the  Bay  colony  and  in  Connecticut.  It  is 
not  to  be  wondered  at  that  such  people  were  sharp  thorns  in  the  side 
of  New  England,  were  excluded  from  the  confederacy,  and  led  a  po 
litical  existence  in  which  their  hand  was  against  every  man's,  and  ev 
ery  man's  hand  against  them. 

Before  Gorton  left  America,  Williams  had  obtained  through  the  in 
fluence  of  Vane  a  patent  for  the  Providence  plantations,  which  per 
mitted  the  erection  of  any  government  desired  by  the  inhabitants. 
With  this  liberal  instrument  Williams  returned,  and  was  re 
ceived  at  Providence  with  great  enthusiasm.     But  neither  this 
generous  charter,  nor  the  pressure  of  outside  danger  from  Massachu 
setts  and  Plymouth — claiming  all  the  territory  both  of  Providence 
and  Newport — could  unite  the  factious  settlements,  which  obstinately 


388  HISTORY  OF  THE 

held  aloof  from  each  other,  and  carried  on  internal  conflict  with  undi- 
minished  zeal.  Williams  withdrew  to  the  Narragansett  coun 
try,  and  was  returned  as  a  deputy  from  Providence,  when,  af 
ter  a  struggle  of  three  years,  a  government  was  finally  formed  under 
the  patent  by  a  convention  of  the  Narragansett  settlements.  Cog- 
geshall  was  elected  President,  and  Williams  and  Coddington  were  two 
of  the  assistants ;  but  in  three  years  more  the  crazy  structure  fell  to 
pieces.  Williams  strove  to  promote  harmony,  but  in  vain.  There 
were  bitter  attacks  on  Coddington  and  other  leaders;  it  was  impos 
sible  to  get  a  President,  there  were  frauds  in  the  elections,  and  men 
were  sent  as  deputies  so  unfit  that  the  court  vacated  their  seats.  At 
last  everything  came  to  a  standstill,  and  there  were  renewed  ef 
forts  to  send  Williams  to  England  to  do  over  again  the  work 
of  obtaining  a  charter.  The  fanaticism  and  extreme  independence  of 
the  settlers  rendered  them  unfit  for  organized  government ;  and  the 
strong  confederacy  of  the  other  colonies  let  them  severely  alone — 
content  to  have  a  place  whither  all  the  disorderly  characters  who 
were  dangerous  to  settled  government  could  find  a  refuge  with  those 
of  a  like  way  of  thinking,  and  could  quarrel  with  each  other  as  much 
as  they  liked. 

Coddington,  disgusted  at  his  deposition,  and  at  the  attacks  upon 
him,  went  to  England,  whence  he  returned  with  a  commission 
making  him  Governor  of  Rhode  Island  for  life,  with  a  board 
of  six  assistants  to  be  chosen  by  the  freeholders.     This,  of  course, 
aroused  a  strong  opposition,  especially  among  the  Baptists,  who  had 
gradually  risen  to  great  importance  in  Rhode  Island,  much  to  the  dis 
satisfaction  of  Massachusetts,  where  severe  laws  were  passed  against 
them.     This  new  party,  headed  by  John  Clarke,  determined  to  over 
throw  Coddington,  who  leaned  strongly  to  the  confederacy,  and  a  con 
sequent  alliance  with  the  hated  colony  of  the  Bay.     Clarke  and  two 
friends — Holmes  and  Crandall — at  once  set  out  for  Massachusetts,  to 
show,  probably,  the  tendency  of  Coddington's  policy.     If  they  want 
ed  persecution,  they  got  it  in  the  form  of  whippings,  fines,  and  impris 
onment  ;  and  so  supplied  with  grievances,  Clarke  started  for  England, 
where  he  was  joined  by  Williams,  sent  out  as  agent  by  Providence  and 
Warwick.     Coddington  meantime  set  up  and  carried  on  with  some 
success  his  rather  arbitrary  government.     Providence  and  Warwick, 
thus  cut  off,  went  on  with  a  burlesque  of  government  under 
the  patent;  and  when  Gorton  was  chosen  president,  and  felt 
the  responsibilities  of  office,  he  proceeded  to  lay  a  heavy  hand  upon 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  389 

his  enemies,  and  degrade  and  punish  them.  Coddington  by  this  time 
was,  of  course,  thoroughly  embroiled ;  and  it  looked  so  much  like 
complete  dissolution  that,  with  the  news  from  England  of  the  revoca 
tion  of  Coddington's  commission  through  the  influence  of  Clarke  and 
Williams,  an  attempt  was  made  to  again  unite  the  four  towns.  The 
scheme  not  only  failed,  but  produced  still  wider  estrangement,  and  two 
hostile  governments  at  Providence  and  Newport ;  while,  with  affairs  in 
this  wretched  condition,  Rhode  Island  entered  into  war  with  the  Dutch, 
commissioned  privateers,  and  erected  an  admiralty  court.  This  led  to 
fresh  wrangles  at  home,  and  to  piracy  at  sea — the  Rhode  Island  cruis 
ers  preying  on  French,  Dutch,  and  English,  and  making  endless  trouble 
for  her  neighbors  of  the  confederacy — until  the  disorders,  indeed,  be 
came  so  bad  that  they  drew  forth  an  angry  letter  from  Vane, 
the  friend  and  protector  of  the  colony.  Armed  with  this  letter, 
Williams  returned  to  the  scene  of  dissension,  and  by  strenuous  efforts 
brought  about  a  meeting  of  commissioners  and  a  reunion  of  the  towns 
under  the  patent  government,  in  which  he  was  chosen  president.  Not 
long  after  there  was  a  riot  at  Providence,  growing  out  of  differences 
of  religious  opinion,  and  this  produced  laws  to  maintain  the 
peace,  and  send  disturbers  to  England.  Coddington  was  again 
fiercely  attacked,  and  with  difficulty  allowed  to  sit  as  a  deputy,  al 
though  he  submitted  entirely ;  while  a  fresh  agitation  was  soon  after 
aroused  by  William  Harris,  one  of  Williams's  old  associates  and  ad 
mirers,  who  was  a  great  believer  in  freedom  of  conscience,  and  so  hot 
an  agitator  that  Williams,  cooled  in  his  feeling  for  universal  toleration 
by  the  cares  of  office,  had  him  arraigned  for  high-treason,  and 
put  under  bonds  for  good  behavior.  This  effort  to  preserve 
order  led  to  Williams's  defeat  at  the  next  election,  and  to  the  choice 
of  Benedict  Arnold  as  president.  The  only  substantial  gain  since  the 
reunion  was  in  the  annexation  of  the  little  Pawtuxet  settlement,  owing 
to  the  withdrawal  of  Massachusetts  and  Plymouth. 

Clarke  remained  in  England  after  the  departure  of  Williams,  and 

looked  after  the  affairs  of  the  colony.     Through  him  was  transmitted 

the  congratulatory  address  to  Richard  Cromwell ;  and  when 

Charles  was  restored,  Rhode  Island  instantly  proclaimed  him, 

ordered  writs  to  run  in  his  name,  and  sent  a  formal  commission  to 

Clarke  to  act  as  their  agent.     Clarke  was  an  adroit  and  able  man ; 

and  when  the  younger  Winthrop  thought  he  had  settled  everything, 

he  found  that  Clarke  had  obtained  promises  which,  if  carried  out  in 

the  Rhode  Island  charter,  would  greatly  curtail  the  territory  of  Con- 


390  HISTORY  OF  THE 

necticut.  The  whole  matter  of  boundary  was  also  complicated  by  the 
lands  of  the  Atherton  Company,  who  gained  royal  favor,  and  desired 
to  be  within  the  Connecticut  jurisdiction.  The  conflict,  in  fact, 
endangered  both  charters,  and  was  finally  patched  up  by  Win- 
throp  and  Clarke  in  ambiguous  and  impossible  terms,  which  avoided 
present  trouble,  and  laid  the  foundation  for  half  a  century  of  tedious, 
bitter,  and  ill-tempered  dispute.  Clarke's  charter  soon  after  passed 
the  seals,  and  the  Governor  and  Company  of  Rhode  Island  and  Prov 
idence  Plantations  were  fairly  incorporated.  This  charter,  like  that 
given  to  Connecticut,  was  drawn  in  the  most  liberal  terms  possible — 
establishing  a  purely  popular  elective  government — while  it  bore  the 
mark  of  its  authors  in  the  provision  that  no  one  should  be  molested 
for  any  religious  opinion  if  the  peace  was  kept.  No  oath  of  allegi 
ance  was  demanded,  and  free  passage  through  the  other  colonies  was 
secured  to  the  inhabitants  of  Rhode  Island.  The  ministry  of  Claren 
don  was  glad  and  ready  enough  to  favor  the  colony  excluded  from 
the  confederacy  of  the  suspected  Puritan  commonwealths. 

The  charter  was  received  in  Rhode  Island  with  great  joy,  and  a 
government  immediately  constituted,  with  Arnold  as  Governor,  and 
Williams  among  the  assistants.     Thus  compacted  at  last  into 
some  sort  of  political  system,  Rhode  Island  turned  her  atten 
tion  to  dispossessing  the  settlers  on  the  land  of  the  Atherton  Com 
pany,  which  had  selected  the  jurisdiction  of  Connecticut,  and  to  be 
ginning  with  the  same  colony  and  with  Massachusetts  the  intermina 
ble  boundary  disputes.    But  these  little  matters  of  domestic  interest 
were  soon  overshadowed  by  the  arrival  of  the  royal  commission,  with 
general  powers  to  regulate  all  the  New  England  colonies.     The  dis 
favor  with  which  Rhode  Island  was  regarded  by  her  neighbors  had 
been  of  great  service  to  her  as  a  suitor  in  England,  where  she  had 
invariably  received  generous  treatment ;  so  she  had  little  to  fear,  ap 
parently,  from  the  commissioners,  to  whom  she  was  perfectly  ready 
to  grant  all  that  they  wished.     Their  first  act,  on  their  return 
from  New  York,  was  to  take  the  whole  Narragansett  country 
— including  the  Atherton  lands — away  from  all  the  colonies,  on  the 
ground  of  the  cession  made  by  the  Indians  in  Gorton's  time  to  the 
Crown,  and  then  convert  it  into  the  "  King's  Province,"  under  the  tem 
porary  management  of  Rhode  Island.     In  Rhode  Island  itself  all  their 
1666     c*eman(*s  met  w^h  ProraPfc  compliance,  and  they  were  allowed 
without  a  murmur  to  hear  appeals  in  various  causes ;  so  that, 
as  may  be  supposed,  their  report  was,  of  course,  most  favorable,  and 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  391 

the  colony  backed  it  up  with  a  loyal  and  flattering  address,  in  which 
the  commissioners  were  highly  complimented. 

In  the  years  following  this  event,  Rhode  Island  went  on  under  the 
charter  government,  not  very  successfully,  it  is  true,  but  still  so  much 
better  than  before  that  a  great  step  was  made,  for  any  government  at 
all  was  a  gain,  even  if  it  was  weak  and  disorderly.  The  interest  in  the 
new  system  soon  abated,  arid  it  became  necessary  to  impose  heavy 
fines  in  order  to  persuade  men  to  attend  to  their  duties.  There  was 
a  bitter  quarrel  over  Clarke's  accounts,  and  threats  of  armed  resistance 
to  the  assessment  laid  to  meet  them,  while  to  all  forms  of  taxation 
there  was  a  steady  and  determined  opposition.  Harris  again  came  to 
the  surface,  agitated  more  violently  than  ever,  nearly  raised  an  insur 
rection,  and  was  finally  arrested  on  information  from  Williams,  upon 
a  charge  of  traitorous  correspondence  with  Connecticut.  Dur 
ing  this  period,  also,  a  new  element  came  into  Rhode  Island, 
in  the  shape  of  the  Quakers,  who  rapidly  increased,  and  gained  a  con 
trolling  influence ;  so  much  so  that  Easton,  one  of  their  number,  soon 
rose  to  be  Governor.  During  his  administration  George  Fox  appear 
ed  in  Rhode  Island,  where  he  was  well  received,  and  was  a  guest  of 
the  Governor ;  but  while  he  was  at  Newport,  Roger  Williams  came 
down  from  Providence  and  challenged  him  to  public  discussion.  The 
challenge  was  accepted,  and  an  angry  debate  of  three  days  ensued, 
raising  to  white-heat  the  old  religious  discord,  and  resulting  in  thick 
volumes  on  both  sides,  filled  with  the  direst  invective.  In  the  midst 
of  all  this  dissension  and  disorder  at  home,  Rhode  Island  did  not  for 
get  her  external  affairs.  She  strove  to  stir  up  the  other  colonies 
against  the  Dutch  when  they  reconquered  New  York,  and  with  un 
wearying  pertinacity  labored  to  regain  the  Narragansett  country  and 
push  back  the  boundaries  of  Connecticut — a  vital  struggle,  in  which 
defeat  meant  territorial  insignificance. 

In  Philip's  war,  Rhode  Island  was  the  scene  of  many  massacres  and 
much  hard  fighting,  for  'n  that  region  the  war  broke  out,  there 
1676~  ^e  £reat  f°rt  °f  ^e  Nan-agan setts  was  taken,  and  there  Philip 
was  tracked  to  his  lair  and  killed.     The  war  was  carried  on 
by  the  forces  of  the  strong  confederate  colonies ;  but  although  Rhode 
Island  sent  no  troops,  her  sufferings  were  by  no  means  slight.     War 
wick  was  destroyed  entirely,  Providence  partially,  and  great  difficul 
ty  and  expense  were  incurred  in  guarding  the  island  settlements.     In 
the  quickly  following  struggle  with  England,  Rhode  Island  fared  bet 
ter,  as  she  was  not  disturbed  by  Randolph,  and  her  government  and 


392  HISTORY  OF  THE 

society  were  beginning  slowly  to  improve.  Clarke,  Williams,  Codding- 
ton,  and  others  of  the  old  leaders  died,  and  the  younger  generation 
was  more  inclined  to  order  and  quiet,  and  less  violent  in  matters  af 
fecting  religious  belief.  The  old  policy  of  entire  submission  and  loy 
alty  was  steadily  pursued,  and  King  James  was  proclaimed  and  pro 
pitiated  with  a  humble  address ;  but  even  this  could  not  save  them. 
Randolph  had  neglected,  but  had  not  forgotten  them  ;  and  when  Mas 
sachusetts  was  overthrown,  he  brought  charges  of  illegal  impositions, 
denial  of  appeals,  disloyalty,  and  evasions  of  the  Navigation  Act  in  the 
usual  form  against  Rhode  Island,  and  obtained  a  writ  of  quo  warranto, 
which  he  served  soon  after  his  arrival  with  Dudley's  commis 
sion.  The  Assembly,  on  receiving  the  writ,  determined  not  to 
stand  suit  with  his  Majesty,  but  sent  an  address  petitioning  for  a  con 
tinuance  of  the  rights  and  privileges  of  the  charter;  a  course  of  ac 
tion  which  it  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  caused  deep  dissensions.  The 
Quakers  sent  an  address  of  their  own,  and  still  another  party  sent  one 
in  favor  of  a  fuller  submission  than  had  been  made  by  the  govern 
ment.  The  Narragansett  country  was  promptly  absorbed  by  Dudley's 
government,  while  the  address  to  the  King  served  to  bring  Rhode  Isl 
and  at  once  within  the  commission  of  Andros,  to  whom  the  colony 
submitted  without  a  murmur.  The  charter  was  given  up,  counsellors 
who  never  attended  were  appointed,  and  Rhode  Island  sank  into  a 
new  and  complete  quiet  under  Andros,  who  devoted  himself  to  ob 
taining  for  the  Crown  complete  possession  of  the  Narragansett  coun 
try  to  the  exclusion  of  all  others  interested.  When  the  news  was  re 
ceived  of  the  fall  of  the  Governor-general,  delegates  from  the 
towns  assembled,  and  re-established  the  old  charter  govern 
ment  under  the  old  officers,  with  the  exception  of  Walter  Clarke,  the 
Governor,  who  had  been  superseded  and  now  refused  to  serve,  so  that 
Rhode  Island  went  on  for  some  time  without  a  chief  magistrate. 

The  change  effected  by  the  Revolution  was  by  no  means  so  wel 
come  in  Rhode  Island  as  elsewhere,  for  the  despotism  of  Andros  had 
been  wholesome,  and  had  given  the  colony  more  rest  and  quiet  than 
it  had  ever  before  known.     But  as  the  charter  had  never  been  va 
cated,  the  old  government,  which  had  been  revived  by  the  Revolution, 
went  on  in  a  lame  and  impotent  fashion,  some  governors  declining  to 
serve,  others  serving  weakly  and  un profitably  for  short  terms, 
until  at  last  Samuel  Cranston  was  elected,  and  continued  to  be 
chosen  annually  for  the  next  thirty  years.     Although  Rhode  Island 
was  so  submissive  to  the  Crown,  she  retained  plenty  of  her  old  fight- 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  393 

ing  qualities  in  other  directions.     The  commission  of  Phips  to  com 
mand  her  militia  aroused  a  determined  opposition,  sharpened  by  the 
old  and  lasting  hatred  of  Massachusetts ;  so  an  agent  was  sent  to  Eng 
land,  and  a  compromise  effected  by  which  the  colony  retained  practi 
cal  control  of  her  soldiers.     The  weak  and  unsettled  condition  of  her 
government,  however,  at  last  brought  Rhode  Island  into  deep  disre 
pute  in  England,  which  was  especially  due  to  Lord  Bellomont,  who, 
full  of  the  business  of  extirpating  pirates,  had  his  attention  strongly 
drawn  to  Narragansett  Bay,  where  the  buccaneers  constantly 
resorted.     Lord  Bellomont  went  in  person  to  Rhode  Island  to 
investigate  their  affairs,  and  sent  home  a  report  full  of  charges  against 
the  colonists  for  ignorance,  corruption,  connivance  with  the  pirates, 
poor  public  officers,  and  evasions  of  laws  of  trade.    The  Governor  and 
Council  deprecated  his  action,  after  some  difficulty  got  an  agent 
1701!  m  England,  and  passed  an  act  to  show  an  ostensible  compliance 
with  the  Navigation  Act.     Rhode  Island  was  at  last  reaping 
the  fruits  of  her  early  follies.     Dudley  also,  who  was  resisted  in  his 
efforts  to  command  the  militia,  and  to  check  the  unlicensed  privateer 
ing  in  which  Rhode  Island  indulged,  sent  home,  after  a  visit 
to  that  colony,  reports  as  dark  as  those  of  Bellomont,  calling 
the  province  a  "receptacle  of  rogues  and  pirates."     The  Massachu 
setts  Governor  no  doubt  exaggerated,  but  the  condition  of  affairs  was 
wretched  enough,  and  came  very  near  bringing  a  royal  Governor  upon 
them.    In  the  protracted  war  of  Anne's  time,  Rhode  Island,  under  much 
pressure,  took  at  first  a  spasmodic  part,  and  finally  sent  men  regularly 
for  the  Canadian  expeditions ;  but  this  public  spirit  resulted  in  the  is 
sue  of  bills  of  credit,  which  became  a  pest  to  the  other  colonies,  and 
in  a  financial  condition  worse,  more  hopeless,  and  more  prolonged, 
than  was  to  be  found  anywhere  else. 

Nothing,  in  fact,  could  have  been  more  unfavorable  to  successful 
colonization  than  the  whole  course  of  events  in  Rhode  Island.  Yet, 
with  all  this  disorder  and  disturbance,  in  addition  to  the  unavoidable 
difficulties  of  settlement,  such  was  the  vigor  of  the  race  that  Rhode 
Island  grew  slowly  but  steadily ;  her  government  very  gradually  gam 
ed  permanency  and  consistency,  and  an  extensive  trade  in  all  direc 
tions  bore  witness  to  an  enterprise  and  persistence  which  nothing 
could  quench.  The  colony  had  its  troubles  abroad,  and  its  selfish 
policy,  moreover,  and  inherited  dislike  of  its  neighbors,  did  not 
help  it.  When  George  I.  ascended  the  throne,  and  again  seven 
years  later,  their  charter  was  menaced,  and  was  saved,  like  that  of 


394  HISTORY  OF  THE 

Connecticut,  by  the  exertions  of  Dumrner.     Their  situation  protected 
them  from  Indian  wars ;  so  that  when  Shute  appealed  for  aid  they 
considered  the  matter  for  two  years,  and  decided  to  do  nothing  except 
inform  Vaudreuil,  the  Governor  of  Canada,  that  if  he  did  not  desist  from 
his  intrigues  with  the  Indians  he  would  incur  the  heavy  penalty  of  their 
hostility.    Their  laws  were  loose,  conflicting,  and  uncertain,  the  finances 
were  ruinous,  taxation  was  difficult  and  slight,  and  the  administration 
of  justice  was  very  poor.     The  complete  religious  license  which  pre 
vailed  made  the  colony  a  fertile  soil  for  fanatical  and  peculiar  sects, 
which  sprang  up,  disturbed  the  community,  hurt  its  reputation,  check 
ed  its  prosperity  for  the  moment,  and  then  disappeared.     Neverthe 
less,  there  was  a  steady  growth  and  improvement,  sometimes  creeping 
and  imperceptible,  sometimes  more  marked,  as  in  the  franchise 
which  was  finally  limited  to  freeholders  worth  one  hundred 
pounds ;  and  again  in  the  case  of  the  chaotic  militia,  when,  after  a 
protracted  and  for  a  long  time  uncertain  conflict,  elected  offi 
cers  were  done  away  with.     Thus  the  colony  went  on  prosper 
ing,  developing,  and  showing  the  best  proof  of  progress  under  the  cir 
cumstances  by  an  uneventful  history,  broken  only  by  a  violent 
173!"  dispute  between  Jenckes,  the  successor  of  Cranston,  and  the 
Assembly,  on  the  question  of  paper-money,  about  which  the 
Governor  held  sound  and  courageous  views,  which  cost  him  his  office. 
The  war  with  Spain  offered  a  fine  field  for  Rhode  Island  privateer 
ing,  and  a  small  body  of  Rhode  Island  troops  suffered  with  Vernon 
at  Carthagena.     When  war  with   France  came,  the  Assembly  took 
prompt  measures  for  strengthening  their  defences  and  improving  and 
increasing  their  forces.     When  Shirley's  invitation  was  received  for 
the  attack  on  Louisburg,  the  Assembly  voted  one  hundred  and  fifty 
men,  who  arrived  too  late  to  take  part  in  the  siege,  and  a  sloop-of- 
war,  which  went  with  the  Connecticut  transports,  and  had  an 
indecisive  engagement  with  a  French  frigate.     But  now,  as 
at  the  beginning  of  the  Spanish  war,  the  chief  services  of  Rhode  Isl 
and  were  in  the  risky  but  profitable  work  of  privateering ;  and  in 
the  next  year  the  colony  contributed  to  the  Canadian  expedition,  and 
anxiously  prepared  to  defend  itself  against  the  expected  French  fleet. 
The  year  following  the  long  contested  northern  boundary- — 
although  there  were  quarrels  and  even  riots  before  the  line 
was  finally  run — was  settled,  giving  a  large  addition  of  territory,  and 
leaving  the  colony  at  last  with  undisputed  jurisdiction,  and  free  from 
harassing  controversy.     Rhode  Island  did  not  reap  from  the  war  the 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  395 

great  benefit  derived  by  Massachusetts  from  the  indemnity -money 
devoted  to  redemption  of  the  currency.  Neither  Connecticut  nor 
Rhode  Island  followed  this  wise  policy;  the  old  financial  troubles 
went  on  unchecked,  trade  was  severely  injured  by  the  failure  to  grasp 
the  opportunity,  and  there  was  a  good  deal  of  distress  among 
the  people  when  the  peace  of  Aix-la-Chapelle  was  made.  The 
currency,  rendered  more  worthless  by  exclusion  from  Massachusetts, 
went  on  increasing  and  depreciating,  and  the  colony  plunged  deeper 
and  deeper  into  the  inflation  policy,  which  finally  brought  on  wide 
spread  distress  and  many  heavy  failures  among  merchants. 
1763~  ^is  bad  condition  of  affairs  was  of  course  much  enhanced  by 
the  great  war  with  France.  Rhode  Island  from  the  beginning 
to  the  end  contributed  freely,  giving  both  soldiers  and  sailors  to  the 
full  extent  of  her  power;  but  all  the  increased  expenditure  was  raet 
by  fresh  issues  of  vast  amounts  of  nearly  worthless  bills.  Insolvency 
became  so  common  that  a  general  insolvent  law  was  passed ;  and  to 
ward  the  end  of  the  struggle  taxation  became  a  subject  of  bitter  po 
litical  feeling,  which  was  always  familiar  in  Rhode  Island,  and  which 
ran  very  high  at  this  time  in  the  determined  personal  contest,  carried 
on  with  varying  success,  between  Ward  and  Hopkins  for  political  su 
premacy. 

While  the  peace  gave  the  colony  opportunity  to  regulate  in  some 
degree  its  wretched  finances,  the  new  policy  of  colonial  rule 
was  begun  in  England.     The  first  symptom  was  the  increased 
activity  and  vigilance  in  the  collection  of  the  revenue,  which  came 
home  to  Rhode  Island — wholly  dependent  on  trade,  and  entirely  used 
to  constant  evasions  of  the  Navigation  Act — with  peculiar  sharpness. 
The  cruisers  ordered  to  enforce  the  revenue  laws  were  especially  ob 
noxious,  and  troubles  began  with  their  officers,  which  increased  rapid 
ly  in  frequency  and  violence,  from  threats  to  open  fire  from  the  forts, 
to  riots  and  burning  the  boats  of  the  men-of-war.     By  her 
agent,  too,  Rhode  Island  protested  vigorously  against  the  re 
vival  of  the  Sugar  Act ;  and  when  it  was  known  that  that  act  had 
passed,  a  committee  of  correspondence  was  appointed,  and  the  agent 
was  instructed  to  oppose  both  that  and  other  measures  to  raise  a 

1765  revenue'  Tlie  Public  min(i  was  full7  prepared,  therefore,  for 
a  vigorous  resistance  to  the  Stamp  Act  when  the  news  of  its 
passage  was  received.  Strong  resolutions  were  passed  in  response  to 
the  circular  of  Massachusetts ;  and  the  stamp-collector,  who  was  also 
the  attorney-general,  resigned  his  new  office  at  once  because  it  was 


396  HISTORY  OF  THE 

against  the  will  of  the  people.  Riots  broke  out  in  Newport,  the  rev 
enue  officers  took  flight,  and  an  attack  upon  the  royal  cruiser  Cygnet 
•was  planned.  When  the  General  Assembly  came  together,  steps  were 
taken  to  preserve  order,  a  committee  was  appointed  to  consider  the 
proper  course  to  be  pursued  in  regard  to  the  Stamp  Act,  and  delegates 
were  chosen,  who  met  those  from  the  other  colonies  at  the  October 
Congress  in  New  York. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  397 


,  CHAPTER  XXI. 

NEW  HAMPSHIRE  FROM  1623  TO  1765. 

WHEN  the  Colony  of  Plymouth  was  struggling  into  existence,  two 
companies  of  settlers  came  out  under  the  auspices  of  Mason 
and  Gorges,  to  whom  the  eastern  region  of  New  England 
had  been  granted,  and  planted  settlements  at  Portsmouth  and  Dover. 
There  they  struggled  on  for  many  years,  hunting,  fishing,  and  trading 
with  the  Indians,  but  making  little  progress,  for  Mason  and  Gorges 
were  filled  with  the  wild  ideas  common  at  that  period,  and  believed 
that  gold  would  be  discovered ;  so  that  their  colonists  were  mere 
adventurers,  for  the  most  part,  who  looked  to  England  for  support. 
When  Mason  and  Gorges  divided  their  property,  Maine  fell  to 
the  latter,  and  New  Hampshire  to  the  former,  including  the  two 
little  settlements,  which  were  each  ruled  by  a  separate  agent,  and  which 
quarrelled  heartily  on  slight  provocation.     Under  these  circumstances, 
the  settlements,  naturally  enough,  did  not  flourish,  but  exhausted  the 
resources   of  their  founders,  who  made   every  exertion  to   sustain 
them.     The  death  of  Mason,  and  the  surrender  of  the  charter  of  the 
Company  of  New  England,  left  the  colonists  to  themselves ;  for  the 
heirs,  weary  of  the  expense  of  the  undertaking,  withdrew  their 
settlers,  and  were  left  with  only  a  claim  to  a  vast  extent,  of 
wilderness.     In  the  mean  time,  Wiggin,  the  superintendent,  brought 
over  some  puritan  families  to  Dover,  where  a  church  was  built,  and 
a  government  erected  which  was  at  once  torn  with  controversies  be 
tween  the  new-comers  and  the  old  settlers.     At  Portsmouth,  a  hand 
ful  of  settlers,  under  the  Mason  grant,  still  remained ;  and  in  a  few 
years  the  Antinomians,  under  the  lead  of  Wheelwright,  flee 
ing  from  the  stern  rule  of  the  Bay  Company,  settled  at  Ex 
eter  ;  while  in  the  same  year  men  from  Massachusetts,  and  emigrants 
from  England,  founded  a  colony  at  Hampton.     Thus  were  formed 
four  independent  churches,  and  four  little  republics,  on  the  familiar 
New  England  model.     They  were  very  disorderly  little  republics  toof 


398  HISTORY  OF  THIS 

•with  many  hostile,  jarring  elements,  and  so  turbulent  that,  after  a  few 
years  of  violent  and  petty  controversy,  they  came  willingly  un 
der  the  strong  jurisdiction  of  Massachusetts,  within  which  they 
continued  for  thirty-eight  years.     During  that  time  the  history  of  the 
two  colonies  is  one  and  the  same  in  all  respects,  and  has  already  been 
told.     The  first  warning  of  a  change  came  with  the  Restora 
tion,  when  Robert  Tufton,  who  took  the  name  of  Mason,  re 
vived  the  dormant  Mason  claim.     This  claim  was  one  ostensible  cause 
of  the  movement  immediately  set  on  foot  against  Massachusetts,  was 
thwarted  by  that  colony  when  the  royal  commissioners  retired  dis 
comfited  from  Boston,  and  was  warded  off  for  many  years.     It  again 
became  prominent  during  Philip's  war,  in  which,  as  in  all  Indian  wars, 
both  then  and  for  many  years  afterward,  the  frontier  settlements  of 
New  Hampshire  suffered  severely.     The  Mason  claim  was  again  made 
the  first  ground  of  attack  against  Massachusetts  by  Randolph,  and  on 
the  report  of  the  law-officers  of  the  Crown  that  Mason  had  a 

1  f*  *  f*  * 

good  title,  Massachusetts  was  summoned  to  answer  the  com 
plaints.     The  court  decided  that  Massachusetts  had  no  jurisdiction 
over  the  New  Hampshire  towns,  but  they  also  decided  that 
Mason  had  no  claim  to  the  government;  and  under  these  cir 
cumstances,  the  King  took  the  matter  into  his  own  hands,  a  commis 
sion   passed  the  great  seal   separating  the  two   colonies,  and  New 
Hampshire  was  turned  into  a  royal  province,  with  a  govern 
ment  of  President  and  Council  appointed  by  the  Crown,  and 
an  Assembly  to  be  chosen  by  the  people. 

Of  the  new  government  thus  established,  John  Cutts  was  made 
president,  and  almost  the  first  act  of  the  province  after  the 
arrival  of  the  royal  commission,  and  the  iformation   of  the 
government,  was  to  address  a  letter  of  gratitude  and  regret  to  Mas 
sachusetts,  to  which  the  enforced  separation  was  not  more  grievous 
than  it  was  to  them.     Laws  were  adopted,  regulations  made,  and 
the  militia  organized  quietly  and  thoroughly  in  the  manner  to  which 
the  people  had  long  been  accustomed ;  while  a  firm  and  vigorous  op 
position  was  at  once  begun  against  the  meddling  of  Randolph,  who 
was  now  collector  of  customs,  and  against  his  deputy,  Barefoot.     Ma 
son  also  appeared  on  the  scene  as  counsellor  to  look  after  his  inter 
ests,  and  proceeded  to  demand  leases  for  his  lands.     He  was  order 
ed  to  desist  by  the  Council,  defied  them,  and  then  a  warrant 
being  issued  for  his  arrest,  escaped  to  England.     Soon  after 
Cutts  died,  and  was  succeeded  by  the  deputy,  Major  Waldron,  who 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  399 

in  turn  was  replaced  by  Edward  Cranfield  as  royal  Governor,  whose 
appointment  was  obtained  through  the  influence  of  Mason,  and  by 
his  surrender  of  one-fifth  of  his  quit-rents  for  the  Governor's  support. 
Cranfield  was  one  of  the  typical  men  of  the  day — one  of  the  greedy, 
arbitrary  fortune-hunters,  of  whom  there  were  always  plenty 
about  Charles  II.  His  commission  gave  him  power  to  remove 
counsellors,  and  thus  incapacitate  them  from  serving  as  deputies,  of 
convoking,  dissolving,  and  proroguing  the  legislature,  of  vetoing  bills, 
erecting  courts,  and  appointing  all  officers,  from  the  Deputy-governor 
down.  Almost  his  first  act  was  to  remove  Waldron  and  Martyn  from 
the  Council,  in  order  to  pack  that  body  and  all  other  offices  with  his 
own  and  Randolph's* henchmen  ;  but  the  poverty  of  the  province  so  an 
noyed  him  that  he  speedily  quarrelled  with  Mason  as  well,  and 
the  Assembly,  pleased  at  this  turn  of  affairs,  voted  him  a  gratu 
ity.  Cranfield,  however,  went  back  at  once  to  his  old  position,  and,  as 
the  Assembly  differed  with  him,  dissolved  them  and  gave  the  charge 
of  the  fort  to  Barefoot.  This  dissolution,  a  proceeding  hitherto  un 
known,  was  regarded  as  so  tyrannous  that  an  insurrection  broke  out 
at  Hampton ;  but  the  rising  was  quelled,  and  Gove,  the  ringleader, 
was  arrested,  convicted  of  high-treason,  and  sent  to  England,  where  he 
was  ultimately  pardoned.  Thus  strengthened,  Cranfield  gave  notice 
that  all  the  inhabitants  must  take  leases  from  Mason,  under  pain  of 
forfeiture,  which  produced,  of  course,  general  resistance.  The  first 
suit  was  against  Waldron.  The  jury  was  packed,  Mason  had  been 
made  Chancellor,  and  Waldron,  not  being  allowed  to  challenge  jurors, 
withdrew,  and  lost  judgment  by  default.  The  same  course  was  pur 
sued  with  others ;  but  it  had  no  effect  except  to  excite  bitter  hatred, 
for  no  one  would  buy  the  forfeited  lands.  In  all  the  misgovernment 
to  which  the  colonies  were  at  various  times  subject,  there  is  no  in 
stance  of  more  unmitigated  tyranny  and  oppression  than  was  used 
by  Cranfield,  and  that,  too,  against  a  people  who  for  nearly  half  a 
century  had  possessed  complete  self-government.  Cranfield  and  his 
associates,  not  content  with  attacking  property,  prosecuted  Martyn, 
the  former  treasurer,  excluded  Massachusetts  vessels  from  the  river, 
altered  the  value  of  coin,  changed  town  boundaries,  and  would  not 
permit  the  towns  to  levy  taxes  until  those  of  the  province  had  been 
paid.  The  burden  at  last  became  so  heavy  that  the  people  secretly 
raised  money,  and  sent  Nathaniel  Weare  to  England  to  plead 
with  the  King.  Soon  after  Cranfield,  compelled  by  necessity 
and  impending  war,  called  the  Assembly  together ;  but  they  would  not 


400  HISTORY  OF  THE 

do  his  bidding,  and  were  dissolved.  Not  satisfied  with  what  he  had 
accomplished  thus  far,  he  now  struck  at  religion,  demanding  that  Mr. 
Moody,  the  Portsmouth  minister,  should  give  the  Communion  to  him 
in  the  Episcopal  form.  Moody  refused,  was  convicted  under  the  Act 
of  Uniformity,  sentenced  to  prison  for  six  months,  and  his  "  benefice  " 
forfeited,  while  the  magistrates  who  dissented  from  the  decision  were 
deposed,  and  the  clergyman  at  Hampton,  upon  whom  the  same  de 
mand  had  been  made,  fled  to  Boston.  Not  long  after  Cranfield  took 
the  last  step  in  his  course  of  oppression  by  levying  taxes  without  the 
consent  of  the  Assembly.  Meantime  Weare  had  gained  a  hearing 
from  the  Privy  Council,  who  sent  word  to  Cranfield  that  he  must 
not  attempt  to  crush  the  presentation  of  the  case  against  him.  Dis 
gusted  with  his  failure  to  make  money,  Cranfield  had  already  asked 
leave  to  withdraw,  and  this  order  in  Council  was  not  an  agreeable  ad 
dition.  Worst  of  all,  the  illegal  taxes  led  to  a  general  revolt,  the  col 
lectors  were  assaulted,  abused,  and  beaten,  and  the  troops  refused  to 
turn  out.  Permission  to  retire  came  when  this  turbulence  was 
at  its  height,  and  Cranfield  hastily  departed  to  the  West  In 
dies,  leaving  Barefoot  as  deputy  at  the  head  of  the  government;  a 
change  which  was  no  improvement,  and  the  disturbance  went  on  un 
til  New  Hampshire  was  again  united  to  Massachusetts,  under  the  gov 
ernment  of  Dudley  and  the  commission.  The  old  union,  renewed 
under  such  different  and  unhappy  circumstances,  continued  unbroken 
through  the  tyranny  of  Andros,  and  was  cemented  by  the  re-estab 
lishment  of  the  old  and  beloved  charter  government,  when  New 
Hampshire,  asking  to  again  be  incorporated,  was  admitted  as 
before,  and  everything  went  on  in  the  old  fashion. 

This  popular  arrangement  was  not  destined  to  long  continuance,  for 
the  new  government  in  England  refused  to  include  New  Hampshire 
within  the  jurisdiction  of  Massachusetts.  It  was  determined 
to  erect  a  separate  government,  and  Samuel  Allen,  who  had 
bought  up  the  Mason  claims,  was  made  Governor,  and  his  son-in-law, 
John  Usher,  his  lieutenant,  to  act  in  his  absence.  Usher  at  once  en 
tered  upon  his  government,  which  was  upon  the  model  common  in  the 
royal  provinces.  His  administration  was  disturbed  and  unprofitable. 
The  long  Indian  wars  of  the  east  had  begun,  and  they  fell  with  terri 
ble  force  upon  the  exposed  New  Hampshire  towns.  The  people  were 
poor,  and  the  growth  of  the  colony  slow.  The  iron  courage  and  per 
sistence  of  the  settlers  alone  kept  them  up  against  the  enduring  war 
fare  of  the  savages.  They  took  land  where  they  desired,  won  it  from 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  401 

the  wilderness,  and  paid  for  it  with  hard  fighting,  so  that  they  natu 
rally  resisted  stoutly  all  the  attempts  of  Usher  to  assert  proprietary 
rights  in  the  soil.    Usher  was  active  in  providing  for  defence ;  but  he 
was  in  conflict  with  the  people  about  lands,  and  most  unwisely  became 
embroiled  with  Phips  when  the  strength  of  Massachusetts  alone  could 
avail  against  the  Indians.     His  position  was  certainly  not  attractive. 
The  people  were  very  poor,  the  revenue  was  very  slender — not  enough 
to  pay  for  defences — the  Assembly  would  give  him  nothing;   and 
as  his  father-in-law,  Allen,  was  equally  obdurate,  Usher  asked  to  be 
relieved.     A  successor,  William  Partridge,  the  treasurer  of  the 
province,  was,  however,  already  on  the  way ;  but  when  he  ar 
rived  Usher  found  his  dislike  of  office  vanish,  disputed  Partridge's  cre 
dentials,  and  resumed  control  of  the  province.    A  letter  from  the  Lords 
of  Trade  confirming  Partridge  drove  Usher  into  retirement,  and  soon 
after  Lord  Bellomont  appeared  as  Governor,  and  was  formally 
proclaimed,  with  Partridge  as  his  lieutenant.     Bellomont  was 
popular  in  New  Hampshire  as  elsewhere,  and  the  Assembly  gave  lib 
erally  from  their  scanty  resources,  but  were  absolutely  unable  to  take 
the  measures  of  defence  which  their  Governor  thought  proper.    They 
were  further  troubled  by  Allen  and  his  land  claims,  which  made  but 
slow  progress  among  the  sturdy  frontiersmen  ;  and,  after  much 
discussion,  the  question  was  taken  to  England  shortly  after 
the  death  of  Bellomont,  Usher  going  to  represent  Allen,  and  Vaughan 
the  province. 

The  policy  of  confiding  New  Hampshire  to  the  Governor  of  Massa 
chusetts,  which  was  begun  with  Bellomont,  was  continued  in  England. 
Dudley,  although  disliked  in  Massachusetts,  was  not  unpopular  in  the 
smaller  colony,  where  the  Assembly  gave  five  hundred  pounds  for 
fortifications,  and  voted  further  a  fixed  annual  salary  of  one 

1  j*  f\  o  J 

hundred  and  sixty  pounds.  This  secured  the  Governor's  good 
will,  although  he  complained  on  other  points ;  for  New  Hampshire, 
while  yielding  on  the  salary  question,  was  as  ill-behaved  as  Massachu 
setts  and  other  colonies  in  her  disregard  of  the  laws  of  trade.  Par- 
1704  tr^£e  was  replace(l  by  Usher  as  Lieutenant-governor,  which 

was  in  practice  the  executive  office  of  the  province.  The 
troublesome  question  of  the  Mason  claims  continued  to  be  the  most 
important  matter  in  public  affairs,  while  Queen  Anne's  war  kept  alive 
the  normal  and  distressing  hostilities  of  the  Indians.  The  province 
was  too  poor  to  lend  aid  to  the  Canadian  expeditions ;  but  the  settlers 
fought  on  doggedly  in  defence  of  their  homes,  supported  by  Massa- 

26 


402  HISTORY  OF  THE 

chusetts,  and  no  part  of  New  England  suffered  more  than  New  Hamp 
shire  through  all  those  trying  years.  The  Allen  claim,  sent  back  by 
the  Privy  Council  to  the  provincial  courts,  was  decided  there  adversely 
to  the  claimants ;  and,  in  order  to  avoid  another  appeal,  the  province 
offered  to  concede  all  the  wild  lands,  to  give  five  thousand  acres  in 
the  settled  districts  for  a  quit-claim  deed  of  the  rest,  and,  in  addition, 
they  agreed  to  pay  two  thousand  pounds.  Allen  died  before  he  could 
accept  this  generous  offer,  and  the  litigation  was  inherited  by  his  son, 
who  obtained  a  royal  order  for  a  new  trial,  with  instructions  for  a  spe 
cial  verdict  Again  Waldron's  title,  which  made  the  test  case,  was  tried, 
and  once  more  the  jury,  disregarding  orders,  refused  a  special  verdict, 
and  gave  a  general  one  in  favor  of  the  defendant.  Before  another 
appeal  could  be  taken,  Allen's  son  died ;  his  heirs  were  minors,  who 
did  not  push  the  controversy,  and  the  claim  sank  out  of  sight, 
to  the  great  relief  of  the  New  Hampshire  people,  whose  right 
to  their  homes  had  been  so  long  in  contest. 

The  second  administration  of  Usher  closely  resembled  the  first. 
He  carried  on  the  Indian  wars  with  energy  and  activity  ;  but  he  soon 
quarrelled  with  the  people,  and  also  with  Dudley,  by  whom  he  had  at 
the  outset  been  favored.  The  personal  controversy  became  very  bit 
ter,  and  Dudley  forced  Waldron,  Usher's  principal  opponent,  into  the 
council.  Attacked  on  all  sides,  Usher  fell  from  power  with  Dudley, 
whom  the  province  had  steadily  supported  after  the  death  of  Anne, 
and,  being  replaced  by  George  Vaughan,  retired  to  his  home  in  Mas 
sachusetts.  Vaughan  was  popular  in  the  province,  but  he  got  on  no 
better  with  his  superior  officer,  Governor  Shute,  than  Usher  had  with 
Dudley.  Shute  had  early  difficulties  with  the  Assembly  in  regard  to 
money,  and  Vaughan,  carried  away  by  the  apparent  strength  of  his 
position,  refused  to  obey  Shute's  orders  unless  he  was  actually  present 
in  the  province ;  going  so  far  in  his  disobedience  and  opposition  that 
he  even  lost  his  hold  partially  upon  the  people,  while  the  com 
plaints  of  Shute  were  listened  to  in  England  and  caused  his  re 
moval.  He  was  succeeded  by  John  Wentworth,  a  native  of  the  prov 
ince,  and  a  wealthy  merchant,  who  administered  his  trust  well  for  thir 
teen  years,  and  desisted  from  opposition  to  his  superior  officer.  The 
respite  at  this  period  from  Indian  wars  gave  the  colony  opportunity 
for  growth  and  improvement,  and  the  hardy  settlers  were  not  slow  to 
take  advantage  of  the  first  opening  thus  afforded  by  peace.  Trade 
was  rapidly  developed,  farms  and  settlements  extended,  and  population 
;ncreased.  A  company  of  Irish  Presbyterians  came  out,  and  Went- 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  403 

worth,  brushing  aside  the  old  claims  which  seemed  about  to  revive, 
gave  them  lands  on  the  Merrimac,  where  they  founded  the  thriving 
town  of  Londonderry.  With  increase  of  strength  there  was  an  in 
crease  of  the  natural  opposition  to  the  royal  government ;  and  the  con 
flict  in  regard  to  the  surveyor  of  woods  was  especially  fierce  in  New 
Hampshire,  where  they  never  ceased  from  their  attacks  upon  these  of 
ficers  of  the  Crown.  They  remonstrated  with  Shute  for  not 

1  722 

calling  a  new  Assembly  for  five  years ;  and  when  the  new  As 
sembly  met,  they  opened  the  question  of  a  fixed  salary,  taking  the 
ground  of  Massachusetts.     On  Shute's  departure,  Wentworth  was  left 
at  the  head  of  the  administration,  and  for  six  years  he  conducted  the 
affairs  of  the  province  as  a  separate  government.     The  war  incited  by 
Rasle  in  the  east  fell,  as  usual,  most  heavily  upon  New  Hampshire, 
whose  history  for  half  a  century,  indeed,  was  little  more  than  that  of  a 
life-and-death  struggle  with  the  savages.     The  death  of  Rasle  brought 
relief  and  comparative  quiet,  which  was  assured  by  the  treaty 
made  by  Dummer  at  Falmouth,  and  the  Assembly  then  con 
tinued  their  contest  over  the  salary,  insisting  on  the  principle  of  an 
annual  allowance,  and  subsequently  passed  an  act  limiting  the 
life  of  an  Assembly  to  three  years,  and  made  a  fruitless  strug 
gle  over  the  Governor's  power  to  negative  the  choice  of  a  speaker, 
a  point  settled  by  the  Explanatory  Charter  of  Massachusetts. 
The  contest  thus  begun  went  on  with  increasing  vehemence 
and  obstructions  on  both  sides,  until  the  House  voted  an  address  to 
the  King,  praying  for  annexation  to  Massachusetts ;  and  it  was  while 
matters  were  in  this  condition  that  the  arrival  of  Burnet  again  brought 
the  two  provinces  under  one  head.    Burnet  had  the  same  instructions 
in  regard  to  New  Hampshire  as  to  Massachusetts  touching  the  salary 
question,  but  he  encountered  no  opposition  with  the  Assembly  of  the 
former,  who  voted  him  an  annual  salary  of  two  hundred  pounds  while 
he  remained  in  office. 

Belcher's  administration,  which  followed  that  of  Burnet,  was  a  period 
of  violent  political  controversy.     The  Governor,  after  his  man 
ner,  went  to  work  at  once  to  build  up  a  party  in  his  own  inter 
est,  a  project  in  which  he  was  largely  successful.     He  quarrelled  with 
Wentworth,  whom  he  wished  to  reduce  to  insignificance  and  depen 
dence;  but  Wentworth's  death,  instead  of  clearing  his  path,  only  made 
way  for  a  much  more  obnoxious  and  combative  man  —  one  David 
Dunbar,  an  Irishman — who  had  been  appointed  surveyor  of  woods,  and 
was  already  cordially  disliked  in  Massachusetts  on  account  of  attempt- 


404  HISTORY  OF  THE 

ed  settlements  and  land  speculations  to  the  eastward,  and  through  ef« 
forts  to  disturb  the  Massachusetts  post  at  Pemaquid.     His  schemes 
had  been  frustrated,  and  Belcher  had  worked  against  his  appointment, 
so  that  he  took  office  with  strong  feelings  of  enmity  toward 
his  superior.     He  at  once  set  up  the  old  claim  to  independent 
action,  when  the  Governor  was  not  in  the  province,  and  succeeded  in 
getting  a  following  which  was  strong  enough  to  control  the  House. 
Belcher's  party  desired  annexation  to  Massachusetts,  a  scheme  not  liked 
in  England,  where  an  unchartered  royal  province  was  highly  prized ; 
while,  on  the  other  hand,  Dunbar's  party  wished  that  there  should  be  a 
complete  separation  of  the  provinces,  and  that  New  Hampshire  should 
have  a  Governor  of  her  own.     The  principal  objection  to  separation 
lay  in  the  poverty  of  the  smaller  colony.     Governor  and  Lieutenant 
worked  incessantly  for  each  other's  removal,  and  Dunbar,  by  his  con 
trol  of  the  Assembly,  kept  the  treasury  empty,  and  hampered  Belcher 
at  all  points.     The  final  settlement  by  the  royal  commission  of  the 
eastern  boundary  dispute  with  Massachusetts  in  favor  of  New  Hamp 
shire,  and  a  series  of  defeats  by  Belcher's  use  of  his  higher  powers, 
drove  Dunbar  to  Pemaquid  to  surveys  of  the  woods,  and  more 
difficulties,  and  finally  to  England  to  seek  promotion.    He  there 
renewed  his  fight  against  the  Governor,  and  it  was  largely  through 
his  exertions  that  Belcher,  who  had  become  unpopular  in  both 
provinces,  was  at  last  removed. 

The  favorable  decision  of  the  King  in  the  previous  year  in  regard 
to  the  boundaries  added  territory  to  New  Hampshire,  and  strengthen 
ed  the  province.     Dunbar's  policy,  backed  by  the  popular  party,  pre 
vailed,  and  Benning  Wentworth,  the  true  leader  of  that  party,  return 
ed  from  England  as  royal  Governor,  and  was  welcomed  with  enthusi 
asm  at  Portsmouth.     The  long  political  battle  was  at  an  end,  and  the 
colony  had  an  opportunity  for  quiet  and  for  rapid  progress,  which  en 
abled  her  to  send  three  hundred  men  to  take  an  active  and 
conspicuous  part  in  the  siege  of  Louisburg.     Encouraged  by 
this  success,  the  province  readily  voted  men  and  money  for  the  abor 
tive  expedition  against  Canada;  but  her  strength  was  fully  employ 
ed  in  preparing  to  repel  the  ,  French  fleet,  and  in  meeting  the  inevi 
table  Indian  war  which  then  and  for  some  years  longer  devastated 
the  frontier.     In  the  midst  of  the   conflict   the  Mason   claim  waa 
bought  up  by  a  company  which  at  once  released  the  already 
settled  lands,  and  that  vexed  question  was,  after  more  than  a 
century  of  dispute,  disposed  of.     The  return  of  peace  gave  room  for 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  405 

controversies  between  the  Governor  and  Assembly,  which  had  been 
suspended  by  the  exigencies  of  war.  The  Governor,  desiring  money 
for  fortification  which  the  Assembly  would  not  give,  undertook  to  en 
large  the  representation  and  pack  the  House,  a  proceeding  which  the 
Assembly  stubbornly  resisted.  No  more  vital  point  of  attack  could 
have  been  chosen ;  and,  unjust  as  the  Governor's  claim  undoubtedly 
was,  it  had  a  practical  force  from  the  unfortunate  fact  that  the  right 
of  representation  rested  only  on  his  commission  and  instructions.  Af 
ter  a  deadlock  of  three  years,  during  which  public  business  was  para 
lyzed,  the  treasury  empty,  and  the  soldiers  unpaid,  a  new  As 
sembly  met,  the  matter  of  representation  was  adjusted,  and  qui 
et  was  restored.  Despite  the  political  struggle,  which,  indeed,  show 
ed  the  increasing  strength  of  the  colony,  and  of  a  popular  party,  the 
province  rapidly  gained  ground;  the  population  increased  to  thirty 
thousand,  new  settlements  sprang  up,  and  Wentworth  began  to  make 
lavish  grants  in  Vermont,  already  claimed  by  New  York,  and  which 
were  a  fruitful  source  of  future  difficulty. 

In  the  French  war  New  Hampshire  took  an  active  part,  contribut 
ing  freely  both  men  and  money,  although  the  Indians  broke  out  at 
once  on  her  frontiers,  and  renewed  the  familiar  scenes  of  massacre 
and  pillage.  No  colony  sent  better  troops  into  the  field;  and  her 
"  Rangers,"  inured  to  savage  warfare,  gained  a  continental  reputation. 
Peace  brought  a  fresh  rush  of  immigration,  and  a  renewal  of  grants, 
a  source  of  great  emolument  to  the  Governor,  who  contended  stoutly 
with  the  Governor  of  New  York  for  the  profits  from  the  Vermont 
lands,  which  were  fast  bringing  on  a  conflict  in  which  an  actual  re 
sort  to  force  seemed  probable.  But  while  the  colony  was  thus  rap 
idly  prospering  the  new  policy  of  taxation  was  begun,  and  feeling 
rose  in  New  Hampshise  as  in  the  other  colonies.  Less  secure  in  her 
rights  than  her  neighbors,  and  with  an  able  and  experienced  Govern 
or,  the  action  of  the  people  was  crippled,  and  Wentworth  suc 
ceeded  in  preventing  the  choice  of  delegates  in  response  to 
the  Massachusetts  circular.  New  Hampshire  was  not  represented  at 
New  York;  but  the  excitement  against  the  Stamp  Act  could  not  be 
checked ;  there  were  outbreaks  at  Portsmouth,  and  Meserve,  the  col 
lector,  was  forced  to  resign.  Thus  New  Hamshire  drifted  into  the 
movement  and  the  general  policy  which  united  the  colonies,  and  pre 
pared  the  way  for  the  overthrow  of  the  English  power  in  America. 


406  HISTORY  OF  THE 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

NEW  ENGLAND  IN  1765. 

THE  last  group  of  English  colonies  in  America  were  those  whose 
political  history  has  been  briefly  traced  in  the  preceding  chapters, 
known  collectively  as  New  England,  and  comprising,  at  the  time  of 
the  Revolution,  Massachusetts,  New  Hampshire,  Rhode  Island,  and  Con 
necticut.  Massachusetts  then  included  what  is  now  the  State  of  Maine, 
and  New  Hampshire  had  claims  to  what  afterward  became  part  of 
Vermont.  These  colonies,  in  the  same  latitude  as  New  York,  occu 
pied  until  the  conquest  of  Canada,  the  most  eastern  portion  of  the 
British  dominion  in  America.  In  Vermont  and  the  valley  of  the 
Connecticut  river  were  farming  lands  of  fair  quality,  and  scattered 
here  and  there  through  New  England  were  tracts  of  more  or  less  fer 
tility  ;  but  the  soil  generally  was  thin  and  poor.  Great  rock  forma 
tions,  lying  near  the  surface,  were  everywhere  predominant.  North 
of  Cape  Cod  the  shore  was  rugged  and  forbidding ;  while  to  the  south 
ward  sand  ran  from  the  beaches  many  miles  inland,  and  treacherous 
shoals  infested  the  approaches  to  the  coast.  There  were  vast  and 
noble  forests,  affording  a  generous  supply  of  timber,  fine  rivers  with 
plenty  of  undeveloped  water-power,  and  ample  and  safe  harbors ;  but 
there  was  nothing  else.  The  climate  was  one  of  violent  extremes, 
with  magnificent  summers  and  autumns,  terrible  winters,  and  harsh, 
inclement  springs.  Nature  gave  almost  nothing;  and  all  that  man 
obtained  in  New  England  had  to  be  won  by  unflinching  and  incessant 
toil.  Not  wealth  and  prosperity  merely,  but  even  a  bare  subsistence 
had  to  be  wrung  from  a  niggardly  soil,  and  from  the  cold  and  stormy 
sea  which  washed  the  coasts  and  lashed  the  jagged  cliffs. 

In  this  region  Englishmen  made  their  homes,  founded  and  built  up 
rich  and  powerful  States,  and  covered  the  land  with  prosperous  vil 
lages,  and  the  coasts  with  thriving  towns.  The  people  who  did  this 
were  of  pure  English  race.  Between  the  years  1629  and  1639 — 
during  the  period  of  Strafford  and  Laud's  supremacy — twenty  thou« 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  407 

sand  Puritans  came  to  America;  and  from  these  twenty  thousand, 
and  from  a  small  but  steady  immigration  of  exactly  the  same  kind 
during  the  seventeenth  century,  sprang  the  people  of  New  England. 
There  came  also  a  few  Normans  from  the  Channel  Islands,  some  Hu 
guenots  from  France,  and  some  Scotch -Irish  to  New  Hampshire — 
all  excellent  elements,  sturdy  and  vigorous,  but  so  trifling  in  amount 
that  they  produced  no  effect  upon  the  general  character  of  the  pop 
ulation.  At  the  time  of  the  Revolution  the  people  of  New  England 
were  pure  Englishmen,  the  purest  part  of  the  race,  perhaps ;  for  dur 
ing  a  century  and  a  half  they  had  lived  in  a  New  World,  and  received 
no  infusion  of  fresh  blood  from  any  race  but  their  own.  This  purity 
of  race,  free  from  any  admixture,  was  something  unknown  in  the  mid 
dle  provinces,  and  was  by  no  means  equalled  in  the  south,  even  in  Vir-- 
ginia,  where  the  foreign  elements  were  practically  unimportant.  It 
formed  a  conspicuous  characteristic  of  the  New  England  people,  and 
was  fully  recognized  in  the  other  provinces,  where  it  was  one  cause  of 
the  dislike  not  uncommonly  felt  toward  the  inhabitants  of  the  eastern 
colonies.1 

Purity  of  race  simplifies  in  one  important  point  the  difficulty  of 
any  attempt  to  revive  the  New  England  of  the  past ;  but  there  is  also 
uniformity  in  many  other  ways,  which  not  only  enables  us  to  treat  the 
New  England  colonies  as  one  province,  but  which  makes  easy  the  ef 
fort  to  understand  and  appreciate  their  social  and  political  condition 
in  the  last  century.  Race,  language,  religious  belief,  manners,  cus 
toms,  and  habits  of  mind  and  thought  were  the  same  from  the  forests 
of  Maine  to  the  shores  of  Long  Island  Sound.  In  some  respects 
the  people  of  the  large  coast  towns  differed  from  those  of  the  inland 
villages,  as  city  always  differs  from  country,  and  there  was  still  fur 
ther  difference  between  the  old  settlements  and  those  of  the  northern 
frontier ;  but  these  differences  were  of  degree  only,  and  not  essen 
tial.  Other  variations  may  be  discovered  on  close  investigation,  but 
they  are  so  slight  as  to  be  of  no  practical  value,  and  do  not  affect  the 
general  proposition.  The  only  important  exception  to  the  predomi 
nant  uniformity  was  in  the  case  of  Rhode  Island,  where  in  early  times 
not  only  the  more  liberal  in  religious  matters,  but  the  radical,  disor 
derly,  restless  elements  of  the  Puritan  communities  to  the  north  and 
west,  had  found  an  abiding  place.  The  result  was,  that  this  little 
colony  was  for  many  years  the  scene  of  faction  and  turbulence ;  a 

1  Crevecoeur,  The  American  Farmer,  p.  48 ;  Rochefoucauld,  ii.,  214. 


408  HISTORY  OF  THE 

sharp  thorn  in  the  sides  of  its  neighbors ;  a  constant  source  of  trou 
ble,  and  of  little  comfort  or  value  to  itself  or  anybody  else.  But 
the  stock  was  good,  and  Rhode  Island  gradually  settled  down  into  a 
thriving  and  prosperous  community.  The  old  spirit  of  faction  and 
pettiness  broke  out  from  time  to  time,  notably  under  the  confedera 
tion,  and  in  the  refusal  to  accede  to  the  Constitution ;  but  the  best 
trait  of  the  early  differences,  that  of  religious  toleration,  was  the  long 
est  lived  and  the  most  prominent,  as  was  shown  in  the  diversity  of 
belief,  and  in  the  many  sects  which  flourished  in  Rhode  Island.  Ex 
cept  in  this  particular,  it  did  not  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution  differ 
materially  from  the  rest  of  New  England. 

At  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution,  the  total  population  of  New 
England  did  not  fall  far  short  of  seven  hundred  thousand.  Massa 
chusetts  and  the  district  of  Maine  had  over  three  hundred  thousand 
inhabitants,  Connecticut  two  hundred,  New  Hampshire  seventy-five, 
and  Rhode  Island  over  fifty  thousand.  In  New  Hampshire  there 
were  some  seven  hundred  slaves,  in  Massachusetts  about  five  thousand, 
in  Connecticut  about  six  thousand,  and  in  Rhode  Island  perhaps 
half  that  number.  Here  too,  therefore,  was  an  important  variation 
from  the  other  colonies  in  the  insignificance  of  a  servile  and  inferior 
race.1 

Community  of  race  was  strengthened,  and  its  effects  increased  by 
community  of  class.  The  settlers  of  New  England  were  drawn  from 
the  country  gentlemen,  small  farmers,  and  yeomanry  of  the  mother 
country.  In  England  they  formed  the  famous  "country  party"  which 
sent  Hampden,  Pym,  and  Cromwell  to  the  House  of  Commons,  and 
fought  afterward  the  battles  of  the  Long  Parliament  in  the  field. 
Many  of  the  emigrants  were  men  of  wealth,  as  the  old  lists  show, 
and  all  of  them,  with  few  exceptions,  were  men  of  property  and  good 

1  Some  of  the  best  estimates  and  most  exact  statistics  of  the  population  of  New 
England  are  as  follows:  New  Hampshire,  Burnaby,  p.  151,  1759 — 40,000;  Census 
of  1774,  Prov.  Paper,  x.,  636 — 72,000  whites,  674  blacks ;  Massachusetts,  Burnaby, 
136—200,000, 40,000  bear  arms ;  1763,  Barry's  Hist.,  ii.,  272—245,000  whites,  5000 
blacks ;  Rhode  Island  Col.  Records,  1749,  v.,  270—28,000  whites,  3000  blacks  ;  Me 
moirs  of  Elkanah  Watson,  1778—60,000;  Burnaby,  p.  121,  1759—35,000  whites, 
several  hundred  blacks ;  Connecticut,  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.  I.,  vii.,  1773 — 191,000  whites, 
6000  blacks ;  Hinman,  Conn.  Antiq.,  p.  362,  Governor  to  Lords  of  Trade,  70,000 
whites,  1000  blacks,  militia  10,000 ;  Fowler's  Hist,  of  Durham,  Governor's  letter, 
1774,  to  Lords  of  Trade,  191,000  whites,  6000  blacks;  New  Hampshire  Hist.  Coll., 
i.,  227, 1730— 10,000  whites,  200  blacks;  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  I., iv.,  196, 1763— 5000 
slaves,  45  whites  to  1  black. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  409 

standing.  They  did  not  belong  to  the  classes  from  which  emigra 
tion  is  usually  supplied,  for  they  all  had  a  stake  in  the  country  they 
left  behind  them.  This  apparent  anomaly  was  due  to  the  causes 
which  led  to  their  emigration.  They  left  England  not  for  the  sake 
of  adventure,  discovery,  or  trade,  but  solely  from  political  and  relig 
ious  motives ;  and  in  this  fact  is  to  be  found  the  reason  of  the 
high  average  and  even  quality  of  the  Puritan  emigration  to  New  Eng 
land.  They  felt  this  strongly  themselves,  and  were  encouraged  in 
their  notions  by  their  peculiar  religious  views.  "  God  sifted  a  whole 
nation,"  said  stern  old  Governor  Stoughton,  "that  he  might  send 
choice  grain  over  into  this  wilderness."  Such  was  the  rooted  belief 
of  the  people  of  New  England,  and  there  was  in  it  a  large  element 
of  truth,  for  there  has  never  been  in  modern  times  such  an  emigra 
tion  from  one  country  to  another.  This  strong  pride  of  race  and 
origin  has  been  one  reason  for  the  unpopularity  of  the  people  of 
New  England  in  later  as  well  as  in  colonial  times;  but  it  was  then, 
as  in  Virginia,  and  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  one  of  the  characteris 
tics  of  a  superior  and  dominant  race,  and  is  one  important  secret  of 
their  success.1 

Such  were  the  people  who  sought  to  found  States  in  New  England. 
Material  success  was  more  difficult  of  attainment  than  political,  and 
had  to  be  extorted  from  an  unfriendly  soil  and  a  stormy  ocean.  The 
first  resort  of  the  colonists  was  agriculture,  which  they  soon  supple 
mented  by  trade ;  and  from  the  latter,  wholly  the  result  of  their  own 
skill  and  energy,  they  derived  their  wealth.  The  interests  of  the 
population  were  pretty  evenly  divided  between  these  two  branches  of 
industry.  In  New  Hampshire  the  colonists  were  for  the  most  part 
farmers ;  in  Maine  and  Massachusetts  the  people  were  divided ;  in 
Rhode  Island  trade  predominated;  and  in  Connecticut  agriculture. 
Except  in  the  latter  colony,  the  farms  produced  little  more  than  a , 
comfortable  subsistence  for  their  owners,  and  the  methods  of  cultiva 
tion,  on  account  of  the  poor  character  of  the  soil,  were  superior  to 
those  in  use  elsewhere.  In  the  valley  of  the  Connecticut  and  in  the 
province  of  the  same  name,  land  was  better,  and  farming  much  ruder 
and  more  profitable  than  to  the  north.  The  chief  products  were  hay, 
grain,  and  cattle,  which  were  exported  to  New  York,  Philadelphia, 


1  As  to  the  wealth,  position,  and  character  of  the  Puritan  emigrants,  proofs 
abound ;  but  see,  e.  g.,  Hollister's  History  of  Connecticut,  i.,  419,  and  New  England 
Genealogical  Register,  vol.  xxx.,  155. 


410  HISTORY  OF  THE 

and  the  West  Indies,  and  which  found  an  outlet  through  Boston, 
Rhode  Island,  and  New  York,  and  sometimes  by  small  craft,  which 
ascended  the  rivers  and  took  ventures  from  the  farmers,  to  the  West 
Indies,  bringing  back  slaves  or  casks  of  sugar.  In  this  way  a  frugal 
and  hard-working  population  derived  a  subsistence  from  the  soil  of 
New  England,  while  their  wealth  came  from  the  sea.  The  principal 
source  of  profit  was  in  the  whale  and  cod  fisheries.  The  homes  of 
the  fishermen  lined  the  coast  of  New  England,  and  they  ventured  in 
the  severest  weather  to  the  dangerous  regions  of  the  Great  Bank. 
The  fisheries  of  Massachusetts  alone  were  estimated  to  be  worth  two 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  pounds  a  year.  The  fish  thus  caught 
were  dried,  and  exported  in  vast  quantities — the  best  to  Spain  and 
Portugal,  the  poorer  to  the  West  Indies — and  formed  the  principal 
article  of  export;  but  there  were  besides  fish -oil,  timber,  and  ships 
built  in  the  ports  of  Maine  and  Massachusetts.  Wines  were  brought 
back  in  return  from  Madeira  and  Malaga,  and  sugar  and  molasses 
from  the  West  Indies,  to  be  distilled  into  rum,  some  of  which  was 
consumed  in  New  England  and  some  re-exported.  The  bulk  of  the 
return  cargoes,  however,  consisted  of  manufactures,  and  the  balance  was 
heavily  against  the  colonists.  The  exports  of  New  England  in  the 
year  17*70  were  only  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  pounds,  while 
the  imports  were  nearly  four  hundred  thousand ;  a  great  gap  which 
was  filled  up  by  the  carrying-trade,  developed  entirely  by  the  native 
energy  of  the  people.  They  not  only  carried  for  the  other  colonies, 
especially  for  those  to  the  south,  but  for  Europe  as  well.  The  New 
England  captain  would  take  his  cargo  of  fish  to  the  West  Indies,  load 
with  the  products  of  the  island,  carry  them  to  Europe,  and  after  sell 
ing  not  only  the  cargo,  but  frequently  his  vessel,  would  charter  an 
English  ship  and  cpme  home  with  British  manufactures.  The  for 
eign  commerce  of  Boston  alone  employed  six  hundred  vessels,  and 
more  than  a  thousand  were  engaged  in  the  fisheries  and  coast  trade. 
The  little  colony  of  Rhode  Island,  with  narrow  limits  and  sterile  soil, 
offered  the  best  example  of  this  untiring  energy.  By  carrying  the 
products  of  her  neighbors  and  of  foreign  countries,  she  became  a 
prosperous  State,  although  it  is  to  be  feared  that  the  traffic  was  not 
always  as  honest  as  it  was  profitable ;  for,  in  addition  to  slave-carrying 
to  and  from  the  West  Indies  and  the  southern  provinces,  there  was  a 
great  deal  of  smuggling  and  privateering.  Newport  was  stigmatized 
at  one  time  with  more  force,  perhaps,  than  justice,  as  a  nest  of  corsairs, 
and  the  famous  Godfrey  Malbone  was  said  to  have  gained  his  great 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  411 

wealth  from  illicit  trade.  This,  however,  was  exceptional.  The  trade 
of  New  England  was,  as  a  rule,  honest  and  fairly  earned,  and  is  the 
greatest  proof  of  the  enterprise  and  sagacity  of  the  people. 

The  hard  struggle  for  existence  which  nature  had  forced  upon  New 
England  led  to  the  development  of  other  fields.  Every  man  almost 
was  of  necessity  a  mechanic,  and  learned  to  -work  with  poor  and 
coarse  tools  with  a  remarkable  degree  of  success.  The  result  of  this 
was  remarked  by  foreign  travellers,  to  whom  the  New  England  vil 
lages  recalled  Europe,  and  who  noted  the  streets  lined  with  shops 
where  every  form  of  trade  was  busily  plied.  In  this  intensity  of  in 
dustry  the  germs  of  the  great  manufacturing  interests  of  New  Eng 
land  may  be  readily  traced ;  but  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution,  thanks 
to  the  policy  of  the  mother  country,  they  amounted  to  little.  There 
was  no  mineral  wealth,  and  copper  was  unprofitable ;  but  iron  was 
mined  in  Connecticut,  and  both  there  and  in  Massachusetts  worked 
from  early  times  with  encouraging  success.  The  rivers  turned  the 
wheels  of  saw  and  grist  mills,  which  were  common  everywhere,  tim 
ber  was  cut  for  exportation,  and  corn  ground  not  only  for  the  native 
farmers,  but  for  the  inhabitants  of  other  colonies.  Other  industries 
were  in  their  infancy.  Paper  was  made  in  small  quantities,  and  bea 
ver  hats  of  coarse  quality  were  manufactured.  Linens  and  coarse 
woollens  were  made  chiefly  by  Scotch -Irish  in  Massachusetts  and 
New  Hampshire ;  leather  was  prepared  by  tanners  and  curriers,  who 
did  a  thriving  business;  and  there  were  several  large  distilleries  of 
New  England  rum.  Domestic  manufactures  were,  however,  the  most 
important,  and  were  so  large  as  to  make  New  England  far  more  in 
dependent  and  self-supporting  than  any  of  the  other  colonies,  and  to 
such  an  extent  that  the  conflict  with  the  mother  country  told  less 
severely  upon  her  resources  than  on  those  of  her  neighbors.  Com 
mon  furniture,  implements,  and  utensils  were  almost  always  made  b,y 
the  farmer  and  his  sons,  who  needed  them ;  and  almost  all  the  cloth 
ing,  from  dressing  the  flax  to  cutting  the  cloth,  was  made  by  the 
women  of  the  family.  In  every  household  the  spinning-wheel  was 
conspicuous,  and  homespun  and  coarse  linen,  and  on  the  frontier 
dressed  deer-skin,  were  universally  worn.  This  simplicity  of  dress  was 
due  in  large  measure  to  the  evenness  of  social  condition,  which  made 
it  possible ;  but  it  was  part  also  of  the  general  result  of  a  struggle 
for  existence  and  material  prosperity  so  hard  that  nothing  was  too 
trifling  to  be  passed  over,  and  in  which  every  opportunity  was  turned 
to  the  best  account.  To  this  struggle,  too,  is  due  the  versatility  and 


412  HISTORY  OF  THE 

quickness  of  mind  and  body,  well  exemplified  in  the  trade  and  man 
ufactures  of  colonial  New  England,  which  became  and  has  continued 
to  be  during  a  century  a  national  characteristic.1 

The  governments  of  the  New  England  provinces  differed  among 
themselves,  and  still  more  from  those  of  the  other  colonies.  When 
New  Hampshire  was  taken  from  Massachusetts  a  royal  government 
was  erected,  which  conformed  to  that  ordinarily  found  in  the  Anglo- 
American  dominions.  The  Governor  and  Council  were  appointed  by 
the  Crown,  constituted  the  Executive  department,  and  formed  the  Up 
per  House ;  while  the  Lower  House  was  composed  of  representatives 
elected  by  the  freemen.  In  Massachusetts,  after  the  loss  of  the  old 
charter,  a  new  charter  was  obtained,  which  established  a  form  of  gov 
ernment  more  closely  resembling  its  predecessor  than  the  common 
provincial  government  from  which  some  features  were  taken.  Under 
the  old  system  the  charter  of  a  trading  corporation,  drawn  with  in 
tentional  vagueness,  had,  without  color  of  law,  been  converted  into 
the  foundation  of  an  independent  State.  The  tests  of  citizenship  were 
religious  profession  and  property ;  but  once  within  the  pale,  the  sys 
tem  was  that  of  a  pure  democracy.  The  Governor,  the  Assistants,  or 
Upper  House,  and  the  Lower  House  were  all  chosen  annually  by  the 
freemen ;  but  by  the  new  charter  the  appointment  of  the  Governor 
was  given  to  the  Crown,  the  assistants  ,or  Council  were  chosen  by  the 
Assembly,  subject  to  the  Governor's  approval,  and  the  representatives 
still  continued  to  be  elected  by  the  people,  while  under  an  earlier 
pressure  the  religious  test  had  been  removed.  The  Governor  was  de 
pendent  for  his  salary  upon  the  votes  of  the  representatives,  and  his 

1  Trade,  Agriculture,  and  Industry  in  New  England,  Hildreth,  ii.,  559,  General 
Table  of  Exports,  etc. — Massachusetts,  Brissot,  p.  101 ;  Abbe"  Robin,  pp.  17,  19, 
23  ;  Burnaby,  pp.  131, 136, 137 ;  Pennsylvania  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  i.,  376,  Hare's  Jour 
ney  ;  Long  Island  Hist.  Coll.,  i.,  Journal  of  the  Labadists ;  Proc.  Massachusetts 
Hist.  Soc.,  iii.,  109,  Bennet's  MS.  Hist,  of  New  England ;  New  England  Hist.  Gen. 
Register,  Early  Ship -building,  vi.,  255;  xiii.,  23,  38;  Byrd  MSS.,  i.,  8;  Rochefou 
cauld,  i.,  398,417,427,481 ;  Voyages  and  Travels  of  Capt.  Nath.Uring,  1709,  p.  110; 
Massachusetts  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  I.,  viii.,  202 ;  III.,  vii.,  199— New  Hampshire,  Prov. 
Papers,  vi.,  8,  1750  ;  Bouton's  Hist,  of  Concord,  p.  521 ;  Brissot,  387 ;  New  Hamp 
shire  Soc.  Hist.  Coll.,  i.,  227,  Answer  to  Lords  of  Trade;  Burnaby,  p.  151 — Rhode 
Island,  Abb6  Robin,  p.  33 ;  Burnaby,  p.  172  ;  Memoirs  of  Elkanah  Watson;  Roche 
foucauld,  i.,  496,  604 ;  Chastellux,  i.,  19 — Connecticut,  Massachusetts  Hist.  Coll.,  I, 
vii.,  234,  and  ff. ;  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  510;  ii.,  13;  Chastellux,  i.,  30;  Hintnan,  Con 
necticut  Antiq.,  p.  362,  1749  ;  Barber's  Hist.  Coll.,  p.  204;  Hist,  of  Glastenbury,  p. 
130  ;  Hist,  of  New  London,  p.  267 ;  Litchfield  County  Centennial,  p.  36,  Iron ;  Hist, 
of  Norwich,  Caulkins,  p.  367  ;  Fowler's  Hist,  of  Durham,  p.  156. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  413 

appointments  required  the  assent  of  the  Council ;  so  that,  besides  the 
ordinary  points  of  dispute,  the  charter  of  Massachusetts  offered  spe 
cial  opportunities  for  conflict  between  the  executive  and  the  people. 
Massachusetts  occupied  a  half-way  position  between  the  common  form 
of  royal  provincial  government  and  the  free-charter  governments  of 
Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island,  where  the  early  charters,  drawn  as  if 
for  corporations  simply,  partly  by  the  insignificance  of  the  provinces, 
partly  by  adroit  management,  and  in  some  measure  by  good  fortune, 
escaped  the  storm  which  overwhelmed  the  Company  of  the  Bay,  and 
floated  safely  into  the  calmer  political  waters  of  the  Protestant  Suc 
cession.  In  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island,  although  the  religious 
test  for  the  suffrage  had  ceased  in  the  one  case  and  was  never  en 
forced  in  the  other,  the  early  Puritan  democracy  survived  in  all  its 
purity,  and  endured  down  even  to  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  cen 
tury.  In  both  these  colonies  the  Governor,  Deputy,  Assistants,  and 
House  were  elected  annually  by  all  the  freemen  voting  under  a 
property  qualification,  no  act  was  valid  without  the  consent  of  both 
Houses,  and  all  appointments  were  made  by  Governor,  Council,  and 
Houses  in  general  court  assembled.  Year  after  year  the  same  men 
were  chosen  to  office,  and  the  sovereignty  was  wholly  with  the  peo 
ple.  The  omission  of  the  King's  name  in  certain  public  documents 
was  the  only  mark  of  the  Revolution ;  and  the  inherent  conservatism 
and  toughness  of  these  simple  systems  were  so  great  that  they  with 
stood  not  only  the  shock  of  war,  but  for  more  than  half  a  century 
the  even  greater  strain  of  new  and  changing  principles  of  society  and 
politics.  The  great  features  of  the  New  England  governments  were 
the  extent  of  the  popular  power,  the  almost  entire  independence  of 
the  mother  country,  and  the  simplicity  and  conservatism  of  practical 
administration.  In  all  the*  colonies  of  the  east  taxes  were  low,  and 
salaries  very  small.  The  royal  Governor  of  New  Hampshire  received 
six  hundred  pounds  a  year,  but  the  Governor  of  Connecticut  only  half 
as  much,  and  in  all  cases  assistants  and  representatives  received  a  few 
shillings  a  day.  The  revenue,  except  a  small  amount  from  excise  in 
New  Hampshire,  was  raised  by  a  tax  on  land,  on  polls,  and  on  per 
sonal  property,  or  "  faculty,"  as  it  was  commonly  called.  The  theory 
of  taxation  was  simple  and  democratic — to  levy  on  all  property  with 
out  distinction ;  and  although  a  system  suited  to  the  condition  of  a 
colony  has  long  been  outgrown,  it  still  prevails  not  only  in  New  Eng 
land,  but  in  many  parts  of  the  United  States,  a  monument  of  Puritan 
policy  and  of  conservatism  of  thought  and  habit. 


414'  HIS10RT  OF  THE 

There  is  one  other  feature  of  the  New  England  governments  wholly 
distinctive,  although  now  extended  far  beyond  its  original  limits,  and 
upon  which  the  whole  system  rested.  This  was  the  principle  of  town 
government.  The  town  was  the  political  unit,  and  as  such  was  rep 
resented  in  the  legislature.  The  Puritan  emigrants,  reproduced  in 
the  New  World,  unconsciously,  of  course,  but  in  all  essential  features 
the  village  community  which  the  Saxons,  Angles,  and  Jutes  brought 
to  England  more  than  a  thousand  years  before  from  the  forests  of 
Germany.  In  other  provinces  settlers  slowly  gathered,  until  they 
built  up  a  town  or  formed  a  county  ;  but  in  New  England,  as  a  rule, 
entire  communities  settled  down  from  the  beginning  in  certain  places, 
and  erected  at  once  a  township,  which  was  not  merely  an  aggregation 
of  human  beings  nor  a  mere  municipal  organization,  but  a  well-defined 
and  represented  political  entity.  Each  member  of  this  community 
had  his  due  share  in  the  land  of  the  town,  a  home  lot  in  the  village, 
a  farm  lot  and  certain  rights  in  the  common  belonging  to  the  whole 
community.  To  this  day  these  commons,  with  their  cattle,  sheep,  and 
other  rights,  may  be  found  in  different  parts  of  New  England,  a  direct 
survival  among  direct  descendants  of  the  same  and  kindred  races,  of 
customs  which  flourished  before  Julius  Caesar  founded  the  Roman 
Empire.  These  communal  organizations  were  born  of  circumstances, 
and  of  the  doctrines  which  found  their  first  expression  in  the  compact 
made  on  board  the  Mayflower;  and  -like  all  thoroughly  wholesome  po- 
litical  institutions,  they  were  the  creatures  of  time,  place,  and  necessi 
ty,  modified  by  the  political  habits  of  thought  of  their  creators.  The 
communal  system,  in  its  fullest  extent  as  attempted  at  Plymouth,  soon 
died  out ;  but  from  the  germ  thus  planted  sprang  the  municipal  or 
ganizations  known  as  towns,  which  present  the  fullest  and  most  per 
fect  example  of  local  self-government  either  then  or  DOW  in  existence. 
These  village  communities,  besides  their  right  of  representation  in  the 
General  Assembly,  had  charge  of  every  local  interest ;  providing  for 
religion,  for  roads  and  bridges,  for  levying  taxes,  for  the  poor,  for 
police,  and  for  every  municipal  want.  In  the  town  meeting  all  the 
freemen  gathered,  and  every  one  took  part  in  the  proceedings  and  the 
debates.  The  State  might  fall  to  pieces,  and  the  towns  would  still 
supply  all  the  wants  of  every-day  government.  The  next  step  was  to 
federation,  to  form  the  State ;  the  next  to  a  union  of  States,  which 
composed  the  New  England  confederacy  ;  and  then,  at  last,  to  the  con 
stitution  of  1789,  which  found  its  strongest  support  among  the  de 
scendants  of  the  Puritans.  On  the  towns  rested  the  whole  political 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  415 

structure,  and  from  them  came  the  capacity  for  practical  self-govern 
ment,  the  readiness  for  federation,  and  the  keen  sense  of  local  rights. 
Among  all  the  institutions  of  the  Puritans  the  town  government  is 
pre-eminent,  not  only  as  a  distinctive  mark,  but  for  its  strength,  use 
fulness,  intrinsic  sense,  and  political  importance.1 

Second  in  importance,  of  course,  only  to  the  system  of  government 
and  administration,  was  the  judicial  system  ot  New  England,  which 
did  not,  however,  differ  materially  from  that  of  the  other  colonies. 
In  Massachusetts,  under  the  original  charter,  the  power  of  establish 
ing  courts  of  justice  was  without  any  warrant  assumed,  like  many  oth 
er  powers,  by  the  colonists.  At  first  the  general  court  exercised  the 
whole  judicial  as  well  as  legislative  authority,  and  decided  cases  by 
a  majority  of  votes ;  but  owing  to  the  pressure  of  business,  inferior 
courts  were  established  in  the  year  1639,  the  general  court  retaining 
only  an  appellate  jurisdiction  in  certain  specified  cases.  The  highest 
of  the  inferior  tribunals  was  the  court  of  assistants,  or  "  great  quarter 
court,"  composed  of  the  Governor,  Deputy-governor,  and  assistants. 
They  had  general  appellate  jurisdiction,  and  heard  all  capital  cases  and 
cases  of  divorce ;  were  held  to  combine  all  the  powers  of  the  King's 
Bench,  Common  Pleas,  and  other  English  courts ;  exercised  admiralty 
jurisdiction;  and  in  the  year  1673  were  empowered  to  try  certain 
causes  without  a  jury,  which  was  a  great  innovation  in  New  England. 
Below  the  court  of  assistants  came  the  county  courts,  with  jurisdic 
tion  extending  to  all  causes,  civil  and  criminal,  except  capital  cases 
and  cases  of  divorce,  and  analogous  to  the  English  courts  of  quarter 
sessions.  They  were  composed  of  an  assistant,  or  magistrate,  residing 
in  the  county,  or  of  one  specially  appointed  by  the  general  court, 
aided  by  commissioners,  nominated  by  the  freemen,  and  appointed 
by  the  general  court.  These  county  courts,  besides  their  purely  legal 
powers,  had  authority  to  lay  out  highways,  license  public-houses,  see 
that  an  able  ministry  was  supported,  admit  freemen,  exercise  probate, 

1  The  New  England  systems  of  government  and  the  town  systems  are  described 
in  many  histories,  notably  Palfrey  and  Bancroft,  and,  among  foreign  writers,  Tocque- 
ville.  For  special  descriptions,  and  for  such  points  as  salaries,  taxes,  offices,  etc., 
see  Burnaby,  pp.  121, 139;  Proc.  Massachusetts  Hist.  Soc.,  iii.,  109,  Bennet's  MS. 
History ;  New  Hampshire  Hist.  Soc.,  i.,  227,  Answer  to  Lords  of  Trade ;  Roche 
foucauld,  ii.,  144, 190 ;  Massachusetts  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  1,  vii.,  Description  of  Connec 
ticut  ;  Hinman,  Connecticut  Antiquities,  p.  362  ;  New  England  Gen.  Hist.  Reg.,  vii., 
Case  of  Common  Rights  at  Marblehead ;  Parker,  Origin  of  Towns,  in  Massachu 
setts  Hist.  Soc.  Proc.,  vii.,  14. 


416  UISTOHY  OF  THE 

and  grant  administration,  while  their  clerks  were  ex  officio  recorders. 
Below  the  county  courts  were  the  local  tribunals,  corresponding  to 
those  of  justices  of  the  peace  or  magistrates  in  the  other  colonies.  They 
were  held  by  an  assistant  or  magistrate,  if  such  a  person  lived  in  the 
town,  by  "commissioners  of  small  causes,"  elected  by  the  people,  and 
sometimes  by  the  select-men  of  the  town.  These  courts  tried  small 
cases,  and  punished  for  petty  offences.  Outside  this  general  system, 
there  was  a  "  strangers'  or  merchants7  court,"  held  by  the  Governor 
or  Deputy,  and  two  magistrates,  for  the  benefit  of  strangers  trading  to 
the  colony,  and  with  an  appeal  to  the  court  of  assistants.  Chancery 
jurisdiction,  so  far  as  it  was  required,  was  retained  and  exercised  by 
the  general  court  until  the  year  1685,  when  they  erected  a  court  com 
posed  of  the  magistrates  of  the  county  courts,  chosen  by  the  free 
men  to  hear  causes  "containing  matters  of  apparent  equity,"  and 
with  an  appeal  to  the  court  of  assistants.  The  old  Puritan  system, 
as  a  whole,  fully  and  sufficiently  met  the  needs  of  the  society  for 
which  it  was  formed.  It  was  administered  admirably,  and  substan 
tial  justice  was  obtained  through  men  of  no  special  legal  training, 
but  with  the  natural  aptitude  and  respect  for  law  and  its  tradi 
tions  which  are  such  striking  features  of  the  early  New  England  char 
acter. 

The  judicial  system,  as  finally  established  under  the  provincial  char 
ter,  was  simplified  and  separated  from  the  executive  and  legislative 
departments,  but  did  not  in  other  respects  differ  essentially  from  that 
of  the  colony  which  had  preceded  it.  The  lowest  courts  were  those 
of  the  justices  competent  to  try  all  causes  under  forty  shillings,  when 
land  was  not  concerned,  and  to  punish  for  petty  offences.  The  busi 
ness  of  the  old  county  courts  was  divided  under  the  new  system.  A 
court  of  quarter  sessions,  or  general  sessions  of  the  peace,  composed 
of  the  justices  of  the  peace  of  the  county,  was  established,  and  held 
quarterly.  They  had  the  care  of  roads,  bridges,  inns,  etc.,  and  the 
criminal  jurisdiction  of  the  old  county  courts,  while  the  whole  civil 
jurisdiction  was  given  to  courts  of  common  pleas,  composed  of  four 
judges  specially  appointed  for  each  county.  The  highest  court  in  the 
province,  replacing  that  of  the  assistants  and  the  general  court,  was 
the  superior  court,  consisting  of  a  chief-justice  and  four  associate  jus 
tices,  who  were  appointed  by  the  Governor  at  pleasure,  but  were,  un 
til  the  year  1772,  dependent  upon  the  Legislature  for  their  salaries. 
Their  jurisdiction  extended  to  all  actions,  civil  or  criminal,  with  gen 
eral  appellate  jurisdiction,  including  appeals,  reviews,  and  writs  of  er 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  417 

ror,  "  as  fully  and  amply  to  all  intents  and  purposes  whatsoever  as  the 
courts  of  King's  Bench,  Common  Pleas,  and  Exchequer,  within  his 
Majesty's  kingdom  of  England."  To  the  judges  of  the  superior  court 
was  given  the  power  to  issue  the  writ  of  Habeas  Corpus;  and  after  the 
failure  to  establish  a  court  of  chancery  by  the  act  of  1692  they  exer 
cised  all  the  equitable  jurisdiction  required  in  the  colony.  The  Gov- 
ornor  and  Council  formed  the  supreme  court  of  probate,  and,  by  the 
right  of  substitution  as  a  civil  law  court,  appointed  judges  of  probate 
for  each  county,  a  system  which  was  loosely  administered ;  but  not, 
apparently,  in  such  a  way  as  to  do  harm,  or  fail  in  the  performance 
of  its  duties.  There  was  also  a  vice-admiralty  court,  with  a  judge  ap 
pointed  by  the  Crown,  which  was  in  Massachusetts,  as  elsewhere,  gen 
erally  unpopular,  and  came  not  infrequently  into  collision  with  the 
superior  court  of  the  province. 

This  provincial  system  too,  as  a  whole,  worked  well ;  the  law  was 
properly  administered,  and  justice  done.  The  bench — filled  at  first  by 
men  of  social  and  political  eminence,  and  of  high  character,  but  of  no 
special  training,  except  in  some  instances  for  the  ministry — gradually 
changed  its  character  during  the  eighteenth  century,  as  the  legal  pro 
fession  became  an  important  pursuit,  and  drew  to  itself  much  of  the 
best  ability  in  the  province.  At  the  period  of  the  Revolution  some 
of  the  judges  were  thoroughly  trained  lawyers ;  and  a  picture  of  the 
court,  as  it  appeared  at  the  time  of  the  writs  of  assistance,  has  come 
down  to  us  in  a  letter  from  John  Adams :  "  The  scene  is  the  Council- 
chamber  in  the  old  Town-house  in  Boston.  The  date  is  in  the  month 
of  February,  1761.  The  Council-chamber  was  as  respectable  an  apart 
ment  as  the  House  of  Commons  or  the  House  of  Lords  in  Great  Brit 
ain,  in  proportion,  or  that  in  the  State-house  in  Philadelphia,  in  which 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  was  signed  in  1776.  In  this  cham 
ber,  round  a  great  fire,  were  seated  five  judges,  with  Lieutenant-gov 
ernor  Hutchinson  at  their  head  as  chief-justice,  all  arrayed  in  their 
new,  fresh,  rich  robes  of  scarlet  English  broadcloth,  in  their  large  cam 
bric  bands  and  immense  judicial  wigs.  In  this  chamber  were  seated, 
at  a  long  table,  all  the  barristers-at-law  of  Boston,  and  of  the  neigh 
boring  County  of  Middlesex,  in  gowns,  bands,  and  tie-wigs.  They 
were  not  seated  on  ivory  chairs,  but  their  dress  was  more  solemn  and 
more  pompous  than  that  of  the  Roman  Senate  when  the  Gauls  broke 
in  upon  them.  Two  portraits,  at  more  than  full  length,  of  King 
Charles  the  Second  and  King  James  the  Second,  in  splendid  gold 
frames,  were  hung  up  on  the  most  conspicuous  sides  of  the  apart* 

27 


418  HISTORY  OF  THE 

ment."1  The  bench  and  bar  of  Massachusetts,  as  they  appear  before 
us  in  that  celebrated  trial,  are  both  a  respectable  and  imposing  body. 
In  the  other  New  England  colonies  the  judicial  system  did  not  dif 
fer  materially  from  that  of  Massachusetts.  New  Hampshire  as  a  roy 
al  province  had  its  highest  court  of  appeals  in  the  Council  of  twelve 
members,  but  there  was  the  same  stubborn  and  effective  popular  re 
sistance  to  a  court  of  chancery  as  in  Massachusetts.  In  Connecti 
cut  there  was  one  supreme  court,  with  a  chief-justice  and  four  asso 
ciate  justices,  sitting  twice  a  year  in  each  county ;  while  the  county 
courts  consisted  of  one  judge  and  two  or  more  justices  of  the 
quorum.  There  were  eighteen  probate  districts,  with  a  judge  for 
each,  justices'  courts  in  every  town,  and  a  sheriff  and  King's  attorney 
in  every  county.  The  Rhode  Island  system  was  substantially  the 
same.8 

The  bar  in  New  England,  as  in  the  other  American  provinces,  did 
not  come  into  prominence  until  the  generation  which  carried  through 
the  Revolution  was  upon  the  stage.  The  first  barrister,  in  the  strict 
sense  of  the  word,  does  not  appear  in  Massachusetts  before  the  year 
1688.  This  was  owing  undoubtedly  to  the  absence  of  any  opportu 
nities  for  study,  to  the  attractions  offered  to  men  of  intellectual  tastes 
by  the  ministry,  and  to  the  fact  that  legal  training  was  not  necessary 
to  obtain  a  seat  on  the  Bench.  Attorneys  were  plenty,  and  laymen 
were  ready  to  argue  their  own  causes ;  but  there  was  no  lack  of  busi 
ness,  for  the  people  were  very  litigious,  especially  in  Connecticut,  and 
rejoiced  greatly  in  the  sturdy  and  frequent  contests  between  towns 
for  tracts  of  land.  The  only  wonder  is  that  a  field  so  promising,  and 
offering  such  an  opening  for  men  with  special  training,  should  have 
been  so  long  neglected  by  a  people  who  were  ready  to  seize  on  every 
opportunity  to  earn  a  living.  The  change  came  before  the  middle 
of  the  eighteenth  century  in  the  towns,  and  somewhat  later  in  the 
country  districts,  in  proportion  as  the  claims  of  the  Church  weakened, 
and  the  importance  of  the  judiciary  and  of  the  business  of  the  law 
increased.  Many  of  the  ablest  graduates  of  the  colleges,  particularly 
those  who  were  the  architects  of  their  own  fortunes,  turned  to  the  law 
for  support  and  advancement ;  and  at  the  period  of  the  writs  of  as- 

1  Works  of  John  Adams,  x.,244 ;  see  also  Tudor's  Life  of  James  Otis,  pp.  60^61. 

2  As  to  courts,  jurisdiction,  etc.,  see  Charters  of  Rhode  Island  and  Connecticut ; 
Washburn's  Judicial  History  of  Massachusetts ;  Massachusetts  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  I., 
vii.,  Description  of  Connecticut;  Hinman,  Connecticut  Antiquities,  p.  362;  New 
Hampshire  Prov.  Papers,  iv.,  479 ;  Hildreth,  ii.,  355. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  419 

sistance  the  bar  of  Boston  was  composed  of  such  men  as  James  Otis, 
John  Adams,  Samuel  Gridley,  Samuel  Quincy,  Oxenbridge  Thacher, 
Robert  Auchmuty,  and  others;  some  destined  to  great  places  in  the 
world's  history,  and  all  sound  and  good  lawyers.  A  similar  improve 
ment  took  place  throughout  New  England ;  and  at  the  time  of  the 
Revolution,  and  afterward,  the  lawyers  had  become  a  powerful  and 
influential  class  in  the  community,  and  one  conspicuous  in  politics ; 
the  profession  was  eagerly  sought,  and  chiefly  filled  by  men  of  social 
position  and  marked  abilities.  By  the  description  just  quoted  from 
the  letter  of  John  Adams,  it  may  be  seen  that  the  dress  and  appear 
ance  traditional  in  the  English  courts  was  preserved  not  only  by  the 
bench,  but  by  the  members  of  the  bar  as  well,  who  came  into  court 
in  silken  gowns,  bands,  and  tie-wigs.  The  opportunities  for  study 
continued  to  be  very  meagre,  and  had  to  be  supplemented  by  zeal 
and  perseverance,  especially  as  the  crude  system  in  vogue  required  a 
practitioner  to  be  equally  well  versed  in  every  branch  of  the  law. 
Practice  was  very  loose,  but  was  for  actual  use  an  improvement  on 
the  technicalities  which  held  sway  in  England.  Litigation  was  easy 
and  cheap,  so  far  as  the  courts  were  concerned,  but  the  amount  of 
business  and  good  fees  made  the  profession  lucrative.  The  counsel 
read  the  complaint,  explained  the  nature  of  the  evidence,  and  then 
put  it  in ;  and  the  plaintiff  and  defendant  were  always  heard  if,  as 
often  happened,  they  wanted  to  address  the  court.  The  oratory  at 
first  was  very  bad,  but  gradually  improved  with  the  development  of 
the  profession.  No  record  of  causes  was  kept,  and  appeals  were  fre 
quent.  A  jury  considered  several  cases  at  once,  and  were  allowed 
while  in  session  to  wander  freely  about.  Special  pleadings  and  de 
murrers  were  not  admitted ;  the  general  issue  was  always  pleaded, 
and  defects  in  form  were  not  suffered  to  abate  the  writ.  There  were, 
of  course,  no  suits  in  equity,  but  the  judges,  not  being  bound  by  strict 
law,  could  give  equitable  construction  ;  and  it  cannot  be  doubted  that 
substantial  justice  was  obtained,  or  that  the  system,  on  the  whole, 
worked  satisfactorily.  In  the  year  1761  the  distinction  between  bar 
risters  and  attorneys  was  introduced,  and  three  years'  practice  in  the 
inferior  court  demanded  before  admission  could  be  obtained  to  the 
superior  court.  Five  years  later,  three  years'  study  was  required  to 
be  an  attorney,  two  more  to  be  a  counsellor,  and  two  more  to  become 
a  barrister.  The  law  was  the  common  law  of  England,  and  the  stat 
utes  of  the  realm  and  of  the  province.  At  the  period  of  the  Revolu 
tion  the  bar  of  Massachusetts  was,  in  point  of  learning,  practice,  and 


420  HISTORY  OF  THE 

general  standing — with  the  exception,  perhaps,  of  Virginia — the  best 
in  America.1 

The  compact  population  and  extensive  mercantile  interests  which 
did  so  much  to  push  forward  the  legal  profession  when  it  once  began 
to  assume  its  proper  place,  assisted  also  the  development  of  the  prac 
tice  of  medicine,  which,  however,  was  never  in  the  hands  of  such  du 
bious  characters  as  was  the  case  at  first  in  the  other  colonies.  Many 
of  the  emigrant  clergy  studied  medicine  before  they  embarked,  while 
others  were  brought  up  to  both  professions ;  so  that  even  in  the  sev 
enteenth  century  most  of  the  physicians  were  learned  men,  possessed 
of  more  or  less  special  training.  Sometimes  the  school -master  was 
the  village  doctor,  and  much  more  rarely  the  healing  art  was  found 
in  combination  with  some  trade,  like  mending  shoes.  The  first  med 
ical  work  which  appeared  in  America  was  Thacher's  "  Brief  Rule  to 
guide  the  People  in  Small-pox,"  published  in  1677.  Early  in  the  fol 
lowing  century  the  profession  had  many  men  exclusively  devoted  to 
its  pursuit,  and  a  general  interest  was  felt  in  it,  and  in  questions  con 
nected  with  it,  as  is  shown  by  the  character  of  the  controversy  which 
raged  in  Boston  about  the  year  1720  in  regard  to  inoculation.  To 
Zabdiel  Boylston  belongs  the  credit  of  its  introduction ;  but  the  con 
flict  spread  to  all  classes,  and  especially  interested  the  clergy,  perhaps 
on  account  of  their  earlier  connection  with  medicine.  The  great 
champion  of  inoculation  was  Cotton  Mather,  who  appeared  at  this 
time  in  a  better  light  than  at  any  other  period  of  his  life;  but  his  en 
lightened  advocacy  of  the  new  theory  called  out  the  bitterest  attacks. 
Inoculation  was  opposed  on  both  religious  and  economical  grounds, 
because  it  anticipated  the  action  of  the  Almighty,  and  because  it  was 
very  expensive.  Cotton  Mather  writes,  in  the  year  1721,  of  a  "spite 
ful  town  and  poisoned  country,"  and  of  his  "  sufferings  from  a  bar 
barous  and  bloody  people,"  and  gives  thanks  for  his  "  late  miraculous 
escape"  from  a  "granado"  which  some  friend  of  old-fashioned  small 
pox  threw  in  at  his  window.  Although  inoculation  slowly  made  its 
way,  the  opposition  was  stubborn  and  long-lived ;  and  as  late  as  the 
year  1774  the  hospital  on  Cat  Island  was  burned,  because  it  was  fear 
ed  that  it  would  be  turned  into  an  inoculating  hospital,  and  the  mob 

1  Brissot,  p.  90 ;  Upham's  Salem  Witchcraft,  i.,  Introduction ;  Proc.  Massachu 
setts  Hist.  Soc.,  iii.,  109,  Bennet's  MS.  History ;  New  England  Hist.  Gen.  Reg.,  xxx., 
206 ;  New  Hampshire  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  iv.,  38  ;  History  of  New  Boston,  p.  201 ;  Bou- 
ton,  History  of  Concord — Rhode  Island,  Greene's  History  of  East  Greenwich,  p.  166 
— Connecticut,  Rochefoucauld,  p.  536. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  421 

protected  the  incendiaries  against  the  officers  of  the  law.  At  the  be 
ginning  of  this  controversy  the  clergy  had  abandoned  medicine,  and 
trained  men  had  not  yet  taken  it  up.  Doctors  were  primarily  drug 
gists,  but  they  were  well  paid,  and  in  the  towns  had  a  large  prac 
tice,  owing  to  the  strangers  brought  thither  by  trade.  Special  edu 
cation,  however,  was  even  then  appreciated,  and  had  its  reward ;  and 
the  physicians  rose  rapidly  in  the  social  scale,  became  a  learned  and 
respectable  body,  and  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution  more  numerous 
than  either  lawyers  or  clergy.  In  Maine  and  the  outlying  districts 
there  were  few  or  no  physicians  or  surgeons,  and  the  people  wer* 
much  at  the  mercy  of  quacks ;  but,  on  the  whole,  the  profession  was 
made  up  of  excellent  men,  who  were  looked  up  to  by  the  communi 
ty,  and  held  in  high  consideration.  Little  was  done  for  the  public 
health.  A  hospital  on  Rainsford  Island,  in  Boston  harbor,  seems  to 
have  been  almost  the  only  effort  in  this  direction,  and  here  New  Eng 
land  fell  behind  Pennsylvania.  Nor  was  so  much  done  for  medical 
education  as  in  the  middle  provinces.  The  first  course  of  lectures 
in  America  were  those  on  anatomy,  delivered  in  Newport  by  Wil 
liam  Hunter,  one  of  the  famous  Scotch  family  of  that  name,  about 
the  year  1754;  but  this  was  exceptional.  There  was  no  organized 
system  of  study  even  at  the  seats  of  learning,  and  medical  associa 
tions  were  not  established  until  just  before  the  Revolution,  and  then 
only  in  a  few  places.1 

The  army  and  navy,  strictly  speaking,  had  no  more  existence  as 
professions  in  New  England  than  in  the  other  colonies,  but  the  ma 
terial  for  both  was  more  abundant  and  better  trained  than  anywhere 
else,  while  the  sea  gave  careers  to  a  large  portion  of  the  boldest  and 
most  enterprising  part  of  the  population.  The  English  Puritan  was 
essentially  a  fighting  man,  and  excelled  in  the  art  of  war.  Many  of 
the  early  leaders  had  seen  service  in  Europe,  and  others  of  a  later 
time  had  followed  Cromwell  to  battle,  and  been  trained  in  the  harsh 
school  of  the  civil  wars.  Dangers  from  the  Indians  kept  this  war- 

1  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  427 ;  Brissot,  p.  89 ;  Dunton's  Letters  (Bullivant  and  Oakes), 
p.  37 ;  Wickes,  History  of  Med.  in  New  Jersey,  pp.  14,  32,  37 ;  Massachusetts 
Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  II.,  i.,  81,  105,  Medicine  in  Massachusetts ;  II.,  vii.,  71,  Letter  from 
Franklin ;  IV.,  ii.,  Douglass  to  Golden ;  V.,  vi.,  133,  Sewall  Diary ;  IV.,  vii.,  Mather 
Papers,  1721 ;  New  Hampshire  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  i.,  157 ;  iv.,  38  ;  v.,  135 ;  History  of 
New  Boston,  p.  201 ;  History  of  Chester ;  History  of  Rindge— Rhode  Island,  Greene's 
History  of  East  Greenwich — Connecticut,  Litchfield  County  Centennial,  p.  61 ;  His 
tory  of  Norwich,  Caulkins,  pp.  193, 426. 


422  HISTORY  OF  THE 

like  habit  in  full  exercise,  and  the  Puritan  at  the  very  outset  dealt 
with  the  Pequods  with  an  effectiveness  and  completeness  unequalled 
in  the  annals  of  the  time.  In  the  seventeenth  century  all  men  went 
armed;  even  the  farmers  wore  swords,  and  the  military  spirit  was 
wide -spread  and  ardent.  All  adults  were  in  the  militia,  and  the 
training-day,  when  the  soldiery  went  out  to  drill  with  pike  and  mus 
ket,  was  the  great  break  in  the  dark  monotony  of  daily  life.  This 
custom  and  the  military  tradition  endured  until  the  Revolution,  when 
the  militia  appear  under  the  famous  name  of  Minute -men.  In 
Connecticut  alone  there  were  eighteen  regiments  of  foot,  and  troops 
of  horse.  The  train -bands  of  each  town  turned  out  four  times  a 
year,  and  the  muster  was  always  full.  The  training  opened  with 
prayer ;  then  came  drill,  shooting  at  a  mark,  feasting,  and  great  con 
sumption  of  cakes,  ale,  and  cider.  The  soldiers  armed  themselves, 
and  chose  their  own  officers,  and  although  they  had  not  the  disci 
pline  of  a  regular  army,  they  furnished  the  best  material  for  one. 
Fort  William,  in  Boston  harbor,  was  heavily  armed,  and  garrisoned 
in  time  of  peace  by  one  hundred  men ;  and  on  the  appearance  of  an 
enemy,  the  signal  was  flashed  from  the  light-house  to  the  fort,  thence 
to  the  town,  and  thence  throughout  the  country.  The  lighting  of 
the  beacon  on  Beacon  Hill,  in  Boston,  would,  when  the  revolution 
ary  troubles  began,  bring  forty  thousand  armed  men  to  the  town 
within  twenty-four  hours.  From  Virginia  to  New  Hampshire,  say  a 
Chastellux,  all  men  had  seen  service,  and  the  experiences  of  the  old 
French  war  were  still  fresh  in  the  minds  of  every  one.1  The  fight 
ing  capacity  of  New  England,  however,  may  be  best  judged  from  a 
report  made  to  Congress  in  the  year  1790,  by  which  it  appears  that 
Massachusetts  alone  had  furnished  more  men  in  the  war  for  Inde 
pendence  than  all  the  colonies  south  of  Delaware  together.3 

The  sea  offered  a  livelihood  to  many  of  the  New  England  people. 
Every  port  on  the  rugged  coast  had  its  little  town  from  whose  har 
bor  issued  the  fishermen  and  coasters,  who  faced  the  storms  of  the 
North  Atlantic,  and  did  as  much  as  any  single  class  to  build  up  the 
fortunes  of  the  Eastern  provinces.  Besides  these,  many  large  vessels 

1  Abb6  Robin,  p.  16;  Journal  of  Labadists,  Long  Island  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  i. ; 
Upham,  Salem  Witchcraft,  i.,  Introduction ;  Proc.  Massachusetts  Hist.  Soc.,  iii., 
Bennet's  MS.  Hist,  p.  109;  Letters  of  John  Dunton — Connecticut,  Massachusetts 
Hist.  Soc.,  I.,  vii.,  234  and  if. ;  History  of  New  London,  p.  406  ;  Westerly  and  its 
Witnesses,  p.  142 ;  Chastellux's  Travels,  i.,  19. 

8  American  State  Papers,  Military  Affairs,  i.,  14. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  423 

sailed  from  New  England  to  trade  to  all  parts  of  the  world,  giving 
great  opportunities  to  men  of  courage  and  sagacity.  The  crews  of 
the  coasters  and  the  fishermen  were  a  rough  but  hardy  race,  who 
combined  the  tenacious  and  combative  qualities  of  the  English  sea 
man  with  an  intelligence  and  quickness  peculiarly  their  own.  They 
manned  the  innumerable  privateers  of  the  Revolution,  which  inflicted 
such  terrible  injuries  on  the  commerce  of  England,  and  largely  con 
tributed  to  the  brilliant  success  of  our  little  navy  in  the  war  of  1812. 
In  the  merchant -service  men  of  a  superior  class,  and  often  of  the 
best  standing  and  condition,  found  the  path  of  fortune  and  advance 
ment,  and  many  of  those  who  then  reached  the  quarter-deck,  a  high 
ly-respected  position  in  New  England,  afterward  attained  the  highest 
rank  both  in  public  and  private  life,  and  became  leaders  in  the  state 
and  nation.1 

The  last  profession  which  remains  to  be  considered  is  that  of  the 
clergy,  who  not  only  occupied  in  New  England  a  wholly  exceptional 
position,  but  drew  to  their  ranks  a  large  proportion  of  the  ability  and 
strength  of  the  community.  The  Puritan  theory  of  a  system  where 
Church  and  State  were  one  and  the  same,  was  tried  fairly  and  fully 
nowhere  except  in  New  England ;  and  one  result  of  the  experiment 
was  to  produce  a  government  which  was  largely  theocratic,  and  which 
gave  to  the  priesthood  a  social  and  political  power  rare  at  any  pe 
riod  or  in  any  nation,  but  unknown  in  modern  times  in  a  free  state. 
The  failure  of  the  Puritan  theory,  carried  out  as  it  was  with  rigid 
completeness,  may  be  traced  in  the  decline  of  the  theocracy,  and  in 
its  ultimate  breakdown  as  the  controlling  force  in  the  state.  But 
although  the  system  came  to  an  end  politically  in  a  little  more  than 
fifty  years,  the  class  which  it  had  welded  and  built  up  endured,  with 
all  its  traditions  and  much  of  its  influence,  for  nearly  two  centuries. 

The  ministers  of  the  Puritan  emigration  were  men  of  birth,  educa 
tion,  and  breeding.  Many  of  them  had  been  driven  from  the  pulpits 
of  the  English  Church,  and  all  possessed  the  sternest  courage  and 
deepest  convictions.  They  were  without  exception  leaders  in  every 
way  among  the  people,  formed  the  strongest  class  in  the  communi 
ty,  and  were  bold,  vigorous,  intolerant,  able  men,  who  set  their  mark 
indelibly  upon  the  early  institutions  of  New  England.  In  accord 
ance  with  their  views  the  laws  were  framed;  by  their  opinions  much 

1  As  to  the  seamen  and  fishermen  of  such  towns  as  Portsmouth  and  Marblej 
head,  see  Drake's  Nooks  and  Corners  of  the  New  England  Coast. 


4:24  HISTORY  OF  THE 

of  the  public  policy  was  directed ;  for  them  the  college  was  founded, 
and  they  alone  were  thought  worthy  of  the  highest  education.  To 
them  the  people  looked  up  with  a  voluntary  reverence  and  with  pro 
found  awe ;  while  from  their  pulpits  they  wielded  an  authority  and 
exercised  a  power  which  was  simply  overwhelming.  The  vigor  and 
force  of  the  damnatory  passages  in  the  sermons  of  Hooker,  who  led 
his  flock  into  the  wilderness  of  Connecticut,  are  marvellous,  and 
Hooker  was  simply  a  conspicuous  example  of  his  class.  "I  love  to 
sweeten  my  mouth  with  a  piece  of  Calvin  before  I  sleep,"  said  John 
Cotton ;  and  the  awful  doctrines  of  the  Swiss  reformer  lost  none  of 
their  effect  in  the  hands  of  the  New  England  clergy.  But  the  Puri 
tan  ministers  did  not  rule  over  congregations  of  ignorant  and  super 
stitious  peasants.  They  had  to  deal  with  hard-headed,  educated,  and 
thinking  English  farmers  and  country  gentlemen.  They  had  to  prove 
their  right  to  their  high  office  not  only  by  strong  and  irreproachable 
character,  but  by  the  breadth  and  depth  of  their  acquirements.  Their 
sermons  were  monuments  of  learning,  and  they  were  without  excep 
tion  profound  scholars.  Chauncy,  the  President  of  Harvard  College, 
had  the  Hebrew  Bible  read  in  the  morning,  the  Greek  Testament  in 
the  afternoon,  and  commented  upon  them  extempore  in  Latin.  They 
were  all  versed  in  ancient  languages,  and  perfect  masters  of  them,  and 
sometimes  of  modern  tongues  as  well.  The  same  deep  learning  char 
acterized  the  Mathers,  Willard,  and  all  the  leaders,  and  in  a  greater  or 
less  degree  the  whole  body  of  the  clergy. 

The  affection  and  veneration  in  which  they  were  held  is  shown  by 
the  account  given  in  a  journal,  toward  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  cen 
tury,  of  the  proceedings  on  the  occasion  of  the  illness  of  a  prominent 
clergyman,  when  a  day  of  fasting  and  prayer  was  appointed  to  be 
held  in  the  church.  First  came  a  prayer  of  two  hours,  then  a  ser 
mon  of  an  hour,  then  more  prayers  and  psalm  singing,  the  whole  oc 
cupying  about  four  hours,  and  the  services  being  conducted  by  three 
ministers.  Even  when  the  Puritan  system  gave  way,  and  the  indif 
ference  and  worldliness  of  the  eighteenth  century  were  strongly  felt 
in  New  England,  the  zeal  and  power  of  the  clergy  suffered  little  abate 
ment.  One  of  the  early  resolutions  of  Jonathan  Edwards  was,  "  to 
live  with  all  my  might  while  I  do  live ;"  and  with  such  a  spirit  as 
this  among  the  clergy,  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  they  remain 
ed  a  strong  influential  class,  comprising  many  of  the  best  minds  and 
strongest  characters  in  the  community.  In  colonial  times  the  coun 
try  pastors  had  a  glebe,  and  a  fixed  salary  raised  by  collections ;  while 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  425 

in  the  towns  they  were  paid  wholly  by  the  contributions  of  the  pa 
rishioners.  After  the  Revolution  and  the  adoption  of  the  new  con 
stitution,  they  still  continued  to  form  a  compact  and  energetic  body, 
supported  by  state  laws  and  by  state  taxation.  They  were  the  heads 
of  all  colleges,  admitted  only  teachers  of  their  own  persuasion,  and  con 
trolled  the  higher  education  of  the  state.  The  latitudinarian  move 
ment  of  the  eighteenth  century  begun  by  Jeremiah  Dummer,  the  po 
litical  writer  and  friend  of  Harley  and  St.  John,  did  much  in  Massa 
chusetts  to  modify  their  opinions  and  liberalize  their  sentiments,  thus 
prolonging  in  a  milder  form  their  influence  and  position.  In  Connec 
ticut  they  had  greater  power,  and  used  it  more  unsparingly ;  so  that 
they  continued  to  be  not  only  the  strongest  class  in  the  community, 
but  to  possess  an  almost  unlimited  authority  until  they  were  over 
thrown  in  the  conflict  with  the  Episcopalians  in  the  year  1818.1 

The  position  and  character  of  the  clergy,  however,  is  but  an  intro 
duction  to  the  great  subject  of  religion,  which  was  for  many  years 
the  ruling  force  in  New  England,  was  always  a  predominant  interest, 
and  which  left  a  peculiar  and  enduring  imprint  on  every  form  of 
social  and  political  life.  In  any  community  religion  is  an  important 
element  if  we  wish  to  understand  the  people,  but  in  New  England  it 
was  so  essential,  and  filled  so  great  a  space  in  life  and  thought,  that 
without  a  full  knowledge  of  its  forms  and  conditions  it  would  be  fu 
tile  to  hope  for  even  the  slenderest  appreciation  of  the  society  in 
which  it  was  at  first  the  all-absorbing  and  at  every  period  a  prevail 
ing  interest.  This  applies  not  so  much  to  the  doctrinal  points  as  to 
the  religious  habits  and  observances,  and  to  the  part  which  religion 
played  in  common  every-day  existence.  Of  the  former  it  is  sufficient 
to  say  that  the  generally  accepted  tenets  were  those  of  Calvin,  and 
that  their  discussion  and  development  formed  during  the  seventeenth 
century  the  only  intellectual  excitement  of  the  people.  Points  of 
doctrine  and  questions  of  interpretation  were  argued  with  a  zeal 
which  equalled  that  of  the  preachers  of  Crusades,  and  with  a  subtlety 
and  learning  which  would  have  done  honor  to  the  schoolmen.  The 
history  of  this  side  of  New  England  religion  comes  out  strongly  in 
their  literature,  which  will  afford  a  better  opportunity  for  its  descrip 
tion.  At  present  it  will  suffice  to  confine  ourselves  to  the  broad  field 

1  Fioc.  Alasbuciiusetts  Hist.  fc>oc.,  iii.,  109  and  ff.,  Bennet's  MS.  Hist. ;  Brissot, 
p.  78 ;  Journal  of  the  Labadists,  Long  Island  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  i. ;  Tyler's  Am.  Lit 
erature,  i.,  189  ;  Rochefoucauld,  ii.,  214;  John  Dunton's  Letters;  Hollister's  His 
tory  of  Connecticut,  i.,  424. 


426  HISTORY  OF  THE 

of  the  forms,  observances,  and  effects  of  religion  in  the  ordinary  life 
of  the  people. 

The  organization  of  the  churches  was  that  known  at  the  time  of  the 
Great  Rebellion  as  the  Independent  form.  Each  church  was  a  self- 
sustaining,  independent  body,  and  the  sovereign  power  rested  with  the 
congregation.  The  officers  consisted  of  the  pastor,  lecturers,  teaching 
elders,  and  deacons,  who  were  chosen  by  and  were  dependent  upon  the 
congregation.  Synods  were  held  from  time  to  time ;  but  they  grad 
ually  fell  into  comparative  disuse,  and  never  exercised  great  influence 
as  such  among  the  clergy  or  laity,  nor  were  they  invested  with  any 
very  extensive  authority.  The  vigorous  intolerance  of  the  early  Church 
in  New  England  is  one  of  the  most  familiar  facts  in  our  history ;  but 
this  softened  greatly  toward  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century,  when 
John  Eliot  sadly  bewailed  the  decline  of  religion  ;  and  in  the  eigh 
teenth  century  it  had  almost  wholly  disappeared.  "  The  present  gen 
eration  in  New  England,"  says  Douglass,  in  his  summary  in  the  year 
1749,  "are  of  an  extensive  charity  to  all  Protestants,  though  differing 
in  some  peculiar  but  not  essential  modes  or  ways  of  worship  ;"  and 
again  the  same  writer  says,  "  At  present  the  Congregationalists  of  New 
England  may  be  esteemed  among  the  most  moderate  and  charitable 
of  Christian  professions."  At  a  much  later  period  Brissot  stated  that 
the  ministers  of  Boston  rarely  preached  dogmatically,  and  that  the 
American  principle  of  universal  toleration  was  then  strong  in  Massa 
chusetts.  The  contrast,  indeed,  between  the  conduct  of  the  men  who 
drove  out  Williams  and  Anne  Hutchinson,  and  that  of  their  successors 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  is  very  striking.  Intolerance  at  that  time 
still  lingered  in  customs  and  observances,  but  in  public  policy  a  per 
fect  religious  toleration  prevailed.  A  peculiar  hatred  had  been  devel 
oped  in  New  England  toward  the  Church  which  they  had  left,  and 
many  of  whose  rites  and  ceremonies  they  had  abandoned.  There  was 
long  and  stubborn  resistance  to  the  introduction  by  government  of 
worship  in  the  forms  of  the  English  Church ;  and  it  was  a  bitter  trial 
to  Boston  when  Andros  took  possession  of  the  Old  South  Meeting 
house  for  that  purpose.  At  an  earlier  period  there  was  strenuous  op 
position  to  the  use  of  the  Prayer-book  anywhere  in  New  England, 
and  the  sound  of  its  noble  sentences,  when  permitted,  caused  the 
most  thorough  disgust  and  anger.  The  diary  of  Judge  Sewall — that 
wonderful  picture  of  declining  Puritanism — strongly  reflects  this  same 
feeling.  The  worthy  magistrate  notes  every  year  with  pleasure  that 
Christmas  is  not  yet  observed  except  in  official  circles,  but  that  the  peo- 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  427 

pie  go  about  their  business  as  usual  upon  that  day  ;  while  on  another 
occasion  he  records  his  disgust  at  the  crosses  worn  and  the  healths 
drunk  on  April  23d  in  honor  of  the  "fictitious  St.  George."  This 
feeling  was  deep  and  wide-spread,  unquestionably,  but  it  found  no 
practical  expression,  although,  as  the  province  and  town  grew,  and 
official  society  and  importance  grew  with  them,  the  Episcopal  Church, 
countenanced  and  approved,  of  course,  by  the  executive  government, 
had  in  Boston  a  rapid  increase.  It  met  with  no  bitter  opposition, 
however,  even  in  society,  although  fervent  ministers  had  days  for  pri 
vate  fasting  and  prayer  for  those  who  turned  to  the  Church  of  Eng 
land,  and  against  its  being  set  up  here.  The  clergy  in  Massachusetts 
generally  wrote  and  declaimed  against  the  Church  of  England,  and 
inveighed  against  the  Connecticut  ministers,  who  went  over  to  the 
Episcopalians,  as  they  did  against  Jonathan  Edwards,  and  then  against 
Whitefield  and  the  itinerant  preachers  of  the  great  revival,  and  final 
ly  against  the  Reverend  East  Apthorp,  sent  out  to  Cambridge  by  the 
Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel ;  but  words  were  the  worst 
that  came  of  all  this.  With  a  royal  Governor  strong  measures  could 
not  have  been  taken  against  the  Church  of  England,  and  it  is  not  ap 
parent  that  they  were  desired,  for  nothing  was  done  to  suppress  the 
New  Lights.  Even  Apthorp,  much  as  he  was  written  down,  was — as 
we  are  informed  by  no  less  a  person  than  the  Archbishop  of  Canter 
bury — well  treated  by  the  very  heathen  he  was  sent  to  convert.  But 
Episcopalianism  had,  on  the  whole,  little  success  in  the  two  northern 
provinces  outside  of  Boston  and  Portsmouth,  never  spreading  into  the 
country,  nor  obtaining  any  hold  upon  the  mass  of  the  people.  The 
feeling  in  this  matter  was,  therefore,  milder  in  New  England  than 
elsewhere,  and  less  of  a  grievance  at  the  revolutionary  period,  for  no 
attempt  had  been  made  to  force  the  English  Church  upon  the  Puritan 
polity,  but  merely  to  obtain  for  it  a  foothold.  On  the  subject  of  a 
colonial  bishop  alone  —  an  innovation  of  which  there  was  a  keen 
dread — did  religious  matters  tend  to  embitter  the  colonists  against 
the  mother  country,  although  difference  of  creed  had  in  an  imper 
ceptible  fashion  done  much  to  alienate  them. 

In  Connecticut,  where  the  old  charter  government  still  endured^ 
there  was  rather  less  toleration  than  in  Massachusetts.  When  the 
first  attempt  was  made  in  New  Haven,  in  the  year  1736,  to  found  an 
Episcopal  church,  only  one  churchman  was  discovered  in  the  town, 
and  the  would-be  founder  was  driven  off  by  the  people;  but  by 
the  middle  of  the  century,  the  numbers  of  churchmen  increased, 


428  HISTORY  OF  THE 

and  Episcopal  churches  were  started  in  various  places.  At  the  same 
time  several  clergymen,  headed  by  Samuel  Johnson,  seceded  from  the 
church  of  their  fathers,  and  were  driven  out  of  the  colony  by  the  bit 
ter  hostility  of  the  Congregational  ministers,  who  were  still  all-power 
ful,  and  who  controlled  the  college  and  the  education  of  the  state. 
At  the  time  of  the  great  revival  under  Whitefield  the  Congregation 
al  party  went  even  further,  procured  legislation  against  the  "  New 
Lights,"  and  suspended  several  pastors  for  heresy.  Thus  the  ancient 
authority  was  preserved  intact;  but  in  the  year  1818  it  finally  broke 
down  completely  under  the  strain  which  had  unwisely  been  put  upon 
it  in  a  time  when  the  old  theories  no  longer  appealed  to  the  public 
sympathy. 

In  Rhode  Island  the  whole  history  and  position  of  religion  was  ut 
terly  different  from  that  common  to  her  sister  provinces.  The  settle 
ment  was  formed  by  men  in  opposition  to  the  accepted  Puritan  pol 
icy,  the  founders  belonged  to  the  class  of  extremists  generated  in  a 
period  of  intense  religious  excitement,  and  all  the  radical,  lawless,  and 
adventurous  spirits  flocked  to  the  new  colony.  Inability  to  conform 
to  any  settled  system  was  the  characteristic  of  the  early  settlers  of 
Rhode  Island,  and  the  principle  of  toleration  which  they  advocated 
resulted  for  many  years  in  nothing  but  faction,  turbulence,  and  loose 
government,  which  left  a  lasting  mark  upon  the  community.  Perfect 
toleration  was  established,  and  finally  bore  good  fruit ;  and  members 
of  every  despised  sect  found  a  resting-place  and  recognition  in  Rhode 
Island.  The  charter  of  Brown  College,  which  divided  the  trustees 
among  the  Baptists — the  predominant  sect — the  Friends,  Episcopa 
lians,  and  Congregationalists,  is  a  good  illustration  of  the  Rhode  Isl 
and  policy.  But  the  religious  conflicts  and  varying  creeds  which  had 
given  birth  to  the  colony  bore  fruit  also  in  numerous  religious  fanat 
ics  and  crazy  sects,  such  as  the  Beldenites,  Wilkinson ians,  and  Morse- 
ites,  which  sprang  up  and  flourished  in  the  congenial  soil,  and  pro 
duced  more  or  less  commotion  and  disorder.1 


1  As  to  religion  in  Massachusetts,  see  Anderson's  Colonial  Church,  iii.,  407 ; 
Douglass,  Summary,  i.,  432,  441 ;  Brissot,  p.  74  ;  Burnaby,  p.  134  ;  Wansey,  pp.  31, 
43  ;  Long  Island  Hist.  Soc.,  i.,  Journal  of  Labadists ;  Nason's  Life  of  Frankland ; 
New  England  Gen.  Hist.  Reg.,  x.,  322  ;  xiv.,  204 ;  John  Dunton's  Letters,  p.  66 ; 
Doc.  relating  to  Col.  History  of  New  York,  vi.,  Johnson  to  Seeker,  etc.,  1753, 1759; 
U  ring's  Voyages,  p.  1 10 ;  Massachusetts  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  II.,  ii.,  S.  Johnson,  etc. ;  II., 
viii.,72 ;  IV.,  iv.,  421  ;  New  Hampshire  Hist.  Soc.,  iv.,  37 ;  Brewster,  Rambles  about 
Portsmouth,  Second  Series,  p.  357  ;  Prov.  Papers,  iv.,  650 — Rhode  Island,  Burnaby, 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  429 

Such  were  the  general  aspects  of  religion  in  the  New  England 
provinces  in  the  eighteenth  century ;  but  its  real  character,  and  its 
effect  upon  life  and  society,  require  more  detail  for  a  complete  under 
standing.  The  most  striking  part  of  New  England  religion,  and  one 
which  presents  a  vivid  picture  of  New  England  daily  life,  is  to  be 
found  in  the  forms  of  worship,  in  the  observance  of  Sunday,  and  in 
its  laws  and  customs.  The  Puritan  Sabbath  was  observed  with  strict 
uniformity  throughout  New  England ;  and  although  its  stern  features 
soften  as  we  approach  the  Revolution,  it  is  still  essentially  the  same 
as  during  the  old  charter  government.  The  Sabbath  laws  formed  an 
important  part  of  the  Puritan  legislation ;  they  were  rigidly  enforced 
by  the  early  immigrants,  and  produced  a  day  of  rest  which  was  ab 
solutely  terrible  in  its  grim  ness.  The  Sabbath  began  at  six  o'clock 
in  the  evening  on  Saturday,  and  lasted  until  sunset  on  Sunday.  All 
work  of  every  description  was  suspended;  while  amusements  and 
sports,  rare  enough  on  week-days,  were  absolutely  prohibited.  There 
was  no  travelling,  no  movement  in  the  streets,  nothing  but  religious 
exercises  at  home  and  in  church.  No  traveller  could  be  entertained, 
and  the  constables  made  the  rounds  of  the  town  on  Saturday  even 
ing  to  see  that  all  taverns  were  closed ;  and  if  any  one  was  absent 
from  church  for  more  than  one  Sunday,  the  tything-men  sought  the 
offender  out,  and  he  was  obliged  to  offer  sufficient  defence  or  be 
fined,  set  in  the  stocks  or  in  a  wooden  cage,  or  whipped.  The  or 
der  maintained  in  church  was  of  the  severest  kind.  A  luckless  maid 
servant  of  Plymouth,  who  in  the  early  days  smiled  in  church,  was 
threatened  with  banishment  as  a  vagabond.  Sunday  was  no  day  for 
smiling  in  the  Puritan  theory,  and  such  it  remained  for  more  than 
a  century.  These  principles  began  to  relax  at  the  close  of  the  sev 
enteenth  century,  and  were  modified  a  great  deal  during  that  which 
followed  ;  but  this  was  not  the  case  with  their  customs.  Toward  the 
end  of  the  seventeenth  century  Robert  Pike,  the  sturdy  opponent  of 
witchcraft,  had  one  Sunday  urgent  business  which  called  him  from 
home.  He  waited  impatiently  for  the  close  of  the  day,  and  as  the 
sun  sank  into  a  bank  of  clouds,  he  mounted  his  horse  and  rode  away. 
As  he  passed  the  door  of  an  unfriendly  neighbor,  the  treacherous  sun 
gleamed  out  through  a  rift  in  the  clouds  upon  horse  and  rider ;  and 


p.  117;  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  496 ;  Gaboon,  Sketches  of  Newport,  p.  43, 136;  Greene's 
East  Greenwich,  p.  161 — Connecticut,  New  Haven  Hist.  Soc.,  i.,  53  ;  History  of  New 
London,  p.  442 ;  Hollister's  History  of  Connecticut,  i.,  469. 


430  HISTORY  OF  THE 

next  day  Robert  Pike  was  fined  for  travelling  on  Sunday.  Increase  Ma 
ther,  in  a  sermon,  attributed  the  terrible  conflagration  in  Boston,  in  the 
year  l7ll,to  carrying  burdens  and  practising  servile  employments, 
such  as  baking,  upon  the  Sabbath  ;  and  his  son,  Cotton  Mather,  said 
it  was  a  warning  from  the  Holy  One  for  non-attendance  on  the  Thurs 
day  lecture.  This  spirit  suffered  little  diminution.  In  the  middle  of 
the  eighteenth  century  no  one  was  allowed  in  Boston  to  go  in  or 
out  of  town ;  the  gates  were  shut,  the  ferry  guarded,  and  men  were 
seized  in  the  country.  There  was  no  trading,  no  walking  to  the 
water's  edge,  or  even  in  summer  on  the  common.  No  barber  could 
ply  his  trade,  no  public-house  was  open,  two  or  three  people  talking 
in  the  street  were  likely  to  be  dispersed  or  arrested,  and  justices  went 
about  with  constables  to  enforce  the  laws.  At  the  period  of  the  Rev 
olution  everything  stopped  on  Sunday  ;  the  streets  were  deserted,  ex 
cept  between  services,  for  every  one  was  either  in  his  own  house  or 
at  church.  The  most  innocent  amusements  were  forbidden,  and  a 
young  Frenchman,  one  of  our  allies,  venturing  to  dispel  the  ennui  of 
the  day  by  playing  on  the  flute,  an  angry  mob  gathered  about  the 
house,  and  he  was  compelled  by  his  host  to  desist.  Even  at  that 
time  men  were  arrested  for  carrying  bundles  in  the  street,  and  the 
select-men  of  the  country  towns  stopped  all  travellers  who  came  with 
in  their  reach.  There  have  been  great  changes  since  then ;  but  in 
no  respect  has  the  strength  of  the  Puritan  character,  and  the  depth  of 
the  impression  they  left  on  their  race,  been  more  forcibly  shown  than 
in  the  fact  that  it  is  their  Sabbath  which  in  all  essentials  endures  to 
this  day  among  the  English-speaking  race  throughout  Great  Britain 
and  the  United  States.1 

The  church  services  corresponded  to  the  general  character  of  the 
day.  Long  prayers  and  longer  sermons  were  the  predominant  feat 
ures,  the  sermon  alone  often  occupying  two  hours,  with  the  prayers 
in  proportion.  After  the  regular  services  all  the  members  took  the 


1  Sunday  Observances,  Massachusetts,  Abbe  Robin,  pp.  10,  11  ;  Journal  of 
Claude  Blanchard,  p.  183 ;  Life  of  Robert  Pike,  p.  94  ;  Journal  of  the  Labadists, 
Long  Island  Hist.  Soc.,  i. ;  Tyler's  Amer.  Literature,  i.,  104,189 ;  Proc.  Massachusetts 
Hist.  Soc.,  iii.,  Bennet's  MS.  Hist,  109  and  ff. ;  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  427  ;  Anburey, 
ii.,  58  ;  Massachusetts  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  i.-v.,  53  ;  Ibid.,  V.,  vi.,  SewulPs  Diary,  ii., 
323— New  Hampshire,  Rochefoucauld,  ii.,  190  ;  Wilton  Centenary,  Peabody,  p.  61; 
History  of  Rindge,  p.  383  —  Connecticut,  Fowler's  History  of  Durham,  p.  171; 
History  of  Meriden  and  Wallingford,  p.  402 ;  Abbe"  Robin,  p.  41 ;  Rochefoucauld, 
i.,  527. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  431 

sacrament,  and  those  who  were  not  yet  admitted  looked  on ;  but  the 
spectators  were  few,  for  every  boy  and  girl  on  coming  to  a  fit  age  was 
required  or  induced  to  take  the  covenant.1  A  curious  and  character 
istic  trait,  strongly  illustrative  of  the  studied  indifference,  or,  perhaps, 
dislike,  of  anything  agreeable,  and  of  the  tenacious  conservatism  of  the 
Puritan  character,  is  exhibited  in  the  matter  of  church  music.  Dur 
ing  almost  the  whole  of  the  colonial  and  provincial  periods  this  music 
consisted  wholly  of  congregational  singing.  The  hymns  of  the  Bay 
Psalm-book,  for  a  long  time  the  only  ones  in  vogue,  have  a  roughness 
of  language  and  versification  which  is  appalling,  and  these  verses  were 
given  out  by  leaders,  a  line  at  a  time,  and  chanted  by  the  whole  con 
gregation,  who  did  not  at  the  outside  know  more  than  five  tunes. 
This  singing  "  by  rule  "  sounded,  says  one  of  its  opponents,  "  like  five 
hundred  different  tunes  roared  out  at  the  same  time,"  an  effect  which 
must  have  been  greatly  heightened  by  the  pause  after  each  line,  while 
the  leader  or  precentor  gave  out  the  next.  Early  in  the  eighteenth 
century  this  organized  discord  produced  resistance,  and  a  reform  was 
begun  with  a  view  to  substituting  singing  by  note  for  singing  by  rule, 
which  led  to  a  prolonged  struggle  all  over  New  England,  and  partic 
ularly  in  Massachusetts,  the  contest  being  carried  on  with  an  interest 
and  a  bitterness  which  are  almost  inconceivable,  and  which  display 
vividly  the  intense  feeling  in  regard  to  all  religious  customs.  Singing 
by  note  prevailed  in  the  course  of  fifty  years  in  the  large  towns,  and 
the  Abbe  Robin  speaks  of  the  majestic  and  impressive  manner  of 
chanting  the  Psalms  in  the  Boston  churches.  But  in  the  country  the 
old  style  held  its  own  much  better,  enduring  into  the  present  century, 
and  yielding  very  slowly.  "  Leaders  and  lining "  did  not  disappear 
from  New  Hampshire  until  after  the  Revolution.  In  the  little  town 
of  Harwinton,  in  Connecticut,  when  the  new  singing  was  introduced, 
in  the  year  17*73,  one  of  the  deacons  rose  and  left  the  church,  cry 
ing,  "  Popery  !  popery !"  an  objection  apparently  very  common  among 
the  lovers  of  the  old  fashions.2 

In  the  church  buildings  there  was  a  change  similar  in  character  to 

1  John  Dunton's  Letters ;  Sibley's  Harvard  Graduates,  p.  566 ;  Tyler's  Amer. 
Literature,  i.,  189 ;  Upham's  Salem  Witchcraft,  i. 

*  Hood's  History  of  Music  in  New  England ;  Abbe  Robin,  p.  1 1 ;  New  England 
Gen.  Hist.  Reg.,  viii.,  272 ;  Ibid.,  xx.,  122 — New  Hampshire,  Bouton's  History  of 
Concord — Connecticut,  History  of  Glastenbury,  p.  77  ;  History  of  Harwinton,  p. 
113  ;  Timlow's  Sketches  of  Southington,  p.  192  ;  History  of  Meriden  and  Walling- 
ford,  p.  403 ;  Claude  Blanchard's  Journal,  p.  112. 


432  HISTORY  OF  THE 

that  in  the  singing ;  but  it  does  not  appear  to  have  met  with  opposi 
tion,  nor  to  have  been  carried  very  far.  The  earliest  churches  were 
simply  barns  of  rude  construction  ;  then  came  those  with  the  square 
tunnel  roof,  improved  in  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  by 
the  addition  of  a  steeple,  which  continued  down  almost  to  the  pres 
ent  day  the  typical  country  meeting-house,  although  further  changes 
were  made  in  the  churches  of  the  principal  towns  during  the  provin 
cial  period.  The  architecture  of  Queen  Anne's  time  was  adopted 
somewhat  for  exteriors  and  much  more  for  interiors,  and  many  of  the 
latter  had  a  good  deal  of  simple  and  grave  beauty,  despite  the  inferior 
style  to  which  they  belong.  As  a  rule,  however,  the  characteristic 
quality  of  the  New  England  church,  within  and  without,  was  unre 
lieved  bareness.  The  walls  of  the  houses  of  God  were  as  devoid  of 
ornament  as  the  forms  of  worship  were  of  pomp  or  ceremony.1 

Changes  there  were,  too,  in  the  appearance  of  the  congregation. 
The  meetings  on  Sunday  among  the  early  Puritans  are  impressive 
pictures,  even  as  we  look  at  them  through  the  mists  of  more  than  two 
centuries.  In  a  rude  building  of  logs,  perhaps  in  a  barn,  the  settlers 
gathered  at  the  beat  of  a  drum  or  the  sound  of  a  horn ;  and  more  than 
three  generations  passed  away  before  bells  were  in  general  use.  For 
many  dreary  years  the  savages  lurked  near  the  villages ;  and  Sunday, 
when  all  were  gathered  in  church,  was  a  time  of  especial  danger. 
The  minister  at  the  desk  was  armed,  all  the  men  were  armed,  sentinels 
were  posted  at  the  door,  and  others  kept  watch  outside.  Thus  the 
early  Puritans  worshipped  God ;  and  cases  like  the  famous  attack  on 
Hadley,  when  the  war-whoop  rose  above  the  voice  of  prayer,  and  men 
rushed  from  chursh  to  fight  for  their  homes,  were  not  lacking  to  show 
the  need  of  such  precautions.  Gradually  the  danger,  receding  from 
the  coast,  died  away,  and  the  congregation  could  gather  undisturbed ; 
but  the  mere  physical  discomfort  was  still  great  enough  to  require  a 
good  deal  of  fortitude  and  religious  zeal.  There  were  no  means  of 
heating  the  church  except  to  open  the  doors  to  the  sun.  In  early 
times  men  drew  bags  over  their  feet  and  women  carried  heated  stones 
in  their  muffs,  and  later  little  hand-stoves.  Seated  on  hard  benches, 
and  exposed  to  the  cold,  they  listened  for  hours  to  the  exhortations 
of  their  pastor;  and  after  the  service  they  filed  up  the  aisle,  each 
contributing  his  portion  to  the  support  of  the  church  and  the  salary 

1  Drake's  Nooks  and  Corners  of  the  New  England  Coast ;  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  400; 
Abb6  Robin,  p.  11. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  433 

of  the  clergyman.  As  time  went  on,  matters  somewhat  improved; 
the  churches  were  better  built,  and  pews  took  the  place  of  hard 
benches.  Strict  discipline  was  always  observed,  and  any  tendency  to 
fall  asleep  was  promptly  checked.  Below  the  pulpit  sat  the  elders 
and  deacons;  in  the  body  of  the  church  were  ranged  the  congregation, 
the  men  on  one  side,  the  women  on  the  other,  according  to  age,  rank, 
and  social  condition.  In  the  back  seats  or  in  the  gallery  were  placed 
the  children  and  negroes,  and  behind  all,  the  tithing-men  with  long 
staves  tipped  with  brass,  with  which  they  rapped  unmercifully  the 
heads  of  slumbering  or  disorderly  boys  or  men ;  while  for  delinquents 
of  the  fair  sex  they  contented  themselves  with  brushing  their  faces 
with  a  hare's  foot  appended  to  the  rod. 

In  the  country  there  was  an  element  in  going  to  church  which  gave 
it  a  pleasanter  side  than  was  to  be  found  in  the  towns;  and  it  must  be 
remembered  that  in  every  village  there  was  a  church  and  pastor,  ex 
cept  in  some  of  the  wild  districts  of  Maine,  where  they  depended  on 
itinerant  preachers,  for  the  first  thing  done  by  every  band  of  settlers 
was  to  build  a  church.  The  Sunday  services  were  in  the  country  for 
many  years  the  only  occasion  for  social  intercourse.  Every  one  went; 
families  from  a  distance  came  for  the  whole  day,  bringing  their  din 
ner  with  them,  and  leaving  one  child  at  home  to  watch  the  house  and 
prepare  the  supper.  The  elders  rode,  carrying  their  wives  on  pillions; 
and  long  sheds,  where  a  hundred  horses  might  often  be  seen,  became 
the  invariable  accompaniment  of  the  meeting-house.  The  young  peo 
ple  walked  to  church,  sometimes  many  miles ;  and  were  wont,  with 
a  thrifty  regard  for  appearances,  to  stop  and  change  their  shoes  and 
stockings  just  before  they  reached  the  church.  Between  services  was 
the  great  occasion  of  the  week.  Then  all  the  news  and  gossip  of 
the  neighborhood  were  interchanged,  and  formed,  with  the  sermon, 
the  topics  of  discussion.  This  brief  interval  of  friendly  meeting  is 
the  one  gleam  of  enjoyment  which  relieves  the  New  England  Sab 
bath.  The  Puritans  effaced  from  Sunday  every  trace  of  its  holiday 
character,  such  as  it  has  in  Europe,  as  a  mark  of  popery,  and  they 
fastened  upon  their  race  the  Sabbath  with  which  English-speaking 
people  are  familiar  at  the  present  day.1 


1  Tyler's  Amer.  Literature,!.,  189;  Claude  Blanchard,p.l  12;  Massachusetts  Hist. 
Soc.  Coll.,  III.,  Hi.,  331 ;  Upham's  Salem  Witchcraft,  i.,  20, 122 ;  New  England  Hist. 
Gen.  Reg.,  pp.  28,  243  ;  John  Dunton's  Letters ;  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  400,  427— New 
Hampshire,  Wilton  Centennial,  p.  61 ;  Bouton* s  History  of  Concord,  p.  528 ;  Parker's 

28 


434  HISTORY  OF  THE 

But  the  observance  of  Sunday,  although  a  chief  part  of  New  England 
religious  life,  was  still  only  a  part,  for  religion,  among  the  Puritans, 
was  never  absent  from  their  thoughts,  and  entered  into  all  their  daily 
life.  The  custom  of  private  fasts  was  common,  with  days  spent  in 
prayer  for  the  family,  for  politics,  for  the  Church,  and  for  the  state  of 
England.  Morning  and  evening,  and  every  meal,  were  occasions  for 
prayer,  and  every  religious  obligation  was  fulfilled  with  rigid  severity. 
Children  were  taken  within  a  week  after  their  birth  to  be  baptized, 
no  matter  what  the  weather  might  be ;  and  at  weddings  and  burials, 
on  private  and  public  occurrences,  the  resort  of  the  Puritan  was  to  his 
Bible,  and  to  immediate  communion  with  an  ever-present  God.  In  a 
society  where  religion  was  so  deeply  felt,  and  where  so  much  impor 
tance  was  attached  to  its  practice,  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  there  was 
more  or  less  hypocrisy ;  but  it  is  equally  certain  that  the  great  mass 
of  the  people  had  a  deep  and  profound  sincerity.  In  nothing  is  the 
decline  of  Puritanism  so  marked  as  in  the  gradual  and  sluggish  dis 
appearance  of  religious  rites  from  every-day  life  during  the  eighteenth 
century.1 

Another  trait  of  the  New  England  religion,  which  gradually  disap 
peared  in  the  last  century,  was  the  element  of  superstition.  The  most 
striking  example  of  this,  and  one  which  has  acquired  a  world-wide  re 
nown,  and  given  rise  to  an  almost  proportionate  amount  of  misun 
derstanding,  is,  of  course,  the  Salem  witchcraft.  Volumes  have  been 
written  upon  this  famous  subject,  and  it  is  only  necessary  to  refer  to 
it  here  as  an  illustration  of  one  side  of  the  New  England  religious 
character.  The  Salem  witchcraft  was  a  virulent  case  of  mental  dis 
ease,  marked,  as  such  epidemics  always  are,  by  contagious  panic,  and 
having  its  origin  in  many  co-operating  circumstances.  The  general 
causes  are  to  be  found  in  the  gloom  of  nature  which  beset  the  early 
settlers,  in  the  hard  toil  in  cultivating  the  sterile  soil,  the  desolate  and 
unending  forests,  the  dread  of  Indian  attacks,  and  constant  losses  from 
them  ;  all  of  which,  combined  with  a  severe  and  terrible  religious  faith, 
gave  a  dark  tinge  and  brooding  melancholy  cast  to  the  minds  of  the 
people.  With  these  general  causes,  special  ones  were  united  toward 

Londonderry,  p.  138;  History  of  Hollis — Connecticut,  Fowler's  History  of  Dur 
ham,  p.  168 ;  Bouton's  History  of  Norwalk,  p.  32 ;  Caulkins's  History  of  Norwich, 
p.  121. 

1  Massachusetts  Hist.  Coll.,  V.,  v.,  vi.,  Sewall's  Diary  generally,  and,  e.  g.,  p.  216 ; 
John  Dunton's  Letters ;  Wilton  Centennial,  Reminiscences  of  Abiel  Abbot ;  Par- 
ker's  Londonderry,  p.  70. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  435 

the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century.  Pirates  had  begun  to  infest  the 
coast,  commerce  had  declined,  the  old  charter,  dearly  beloved  and  al 
most  sacred  in  the  eyes  of  the  people,  had  been  taken  away  ;  there  was 
universal,  political,  and  financial  depression,  and  the  scourge  of  Indian 
warfare  had  just  swept  over  the  land,  leaving  a  heavy  legacy  of  debts 
and  taxes.  The  natural  gloom  of  Puritan  society  riad  thus  deepened 
until  it  had  become  morbid,  and  wild  beliefs  needed  only  a  spark  to 
set  them  into  a  blaze  of  fanatical  and  blood-thirsty  fear.  To  a  peo 
ple  of  this  sort,  who  were  familiar  to  a  high  degree  with  Biblical  the 
ories,  witchcraft  and  the  intervention  of  Satan  came  as  terrible  but 
natural  afflictions;  while  the  course  of  the  clergy,  striving  at  that  period 
to  retain  their  power,  and  urged  on  by  the  fanaticism  of  Cotton  Ma 
ther,  fanned  the  flame.  The  belief  in  witches  was  then  general  and 
unquestioned  in  all  parts  of  the  civilized  world ;  and  when  the  delusion 
became  active  anywhere,  with  favorable  influences,  it  went  to  awful 
lengths ;  for,  the  possibility  of  witchcraft  being  once  admitted,  over 
whelming  evidence  could  always  be  produced.  The  panic  spread,  the 
people  of  Salem  and  its  neighborhood  went  mad,  and  nineteen  per 
sons,  including  Giles  Corey,  who  was  pressed  to  death,  were  executed  on 
the  gallows.  Two  more  died  in  prison,  and  hundreds  were  committed. 
The  tempest  raged  furiously,  spent  its  force,  and  then  the  reaction 
followed,  and  nothing  more  was  heard  of  witchcraft  in  New  England. 
This  panic  has  already  been  contrasted  with  that  which  occurred  more 
than  fifty  years  later  in  New  York.  Both  the  Salem  witchcraft  and  the 
negro  plot  belong  to  the  same  class  of  popular  mental  disease ;  both  were 
awful  in  their  results,  but  neither  is  a  fit  subject  for  reproach.  In  one 
case  the  disease  took  a  religious,  in  the  other  a  secular  form,  owing  to 
the  difference  in  the  two  communities;  but  both  may  be  traced  to 
specific  causes  which  it  is  important  to  understand  for  the  sake  of  sci 
ence  and  truth ;  but  neither  is  a  fit  Jheme  for  abuse  or  a  ground  to  re 
vile  the  people  who  were  so  unfortunate  as  to  be  afflicted  with  them. 
Elsewhere  and  at  other  times  in  New  England  there  were  sporadic 
cases  of  witchcraft,  such  as  we  find  in  all  the  English  colonies  in  Amer 
ica  ;  but  they  have  no  special  or  peculiar  significance.  The  supersti 
tion  of  New  England  took  another  form,  very  Biblical,  but  neither 
very  practical  nor  very  ignorant.  The  Puritans  were  men  who  dream 
ed  dreams  and  saw  visions ;  and  they  pondered  deeply  on  these  oc 
currences  as  being,  perhaps,  communications  from  the  Almighty.  Ev 
ery  portentous  and  monstrous  birth,  every  extraordinary  and  inexpli 
cable  event,  was  ascribed  to  the  immediate  intervention  of  God.  Man* 


436  HISTORY  OF  THE 

ifestations  of  Satan  were  expected  and  found,  noises  were  heard  in  the 
air,  and  signs  seen  in  the  heavens ;  and  all  became  subjects  of  inter 
pretation  and  conjecture.  In  the  diary  of  Noadiah  Russell,  a  tutor  at 
Cambridge  toward  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century,  we  find  en 
tries  recording  the  appearance  of  figures  in  the  heavens — one  of  a  ship, 
another  of  the  devil ;  and,  also,  an  account  of  a  man  in  Connecticut 
who  prophesied  four  dreadful  judgments  on  New  England.  Then 
comes  the  inevitable  New  England  shrewdness  after  this  solemn  rec 
ord  ;  we  must  pay  heed  to  these  revelations,  says  the  worthy  tutor, 
but  not  accept  them  as  oracles.  The  one  fact,  however,  which  comes 
out  strongly  in  a  consideration  of  New  England  superstition  is  the 
small  amount  of  it.  Everything  tended  to  its  development.  Intense 
religious  zeal  and  absorption,  a  life  of  deadly  monotony,  a  constant 
struggle  with  Indians  and  with  nature  for  existence,  and  a  morbid 
habit  of  introspection,  would  seem  to  make  extreme  and  violent  su 
perstition  almost  a  necessity.  That  there  was  so  very  little  of  it,  is 
the  strongest  testimony  possible  of  the  hard  sense,  robust  character, 
and  sharp  intelligence  of  the  New  England  people.1 

With  a  religious  life  so  strong  and  so  peculiar,  it  becomes  of  great 
importance  to  learn  its  effect  upon  the  closely  connected  subject  of 
general  morality ;  for  it  is  not  only  necessary  to  have  a  general  idea 
of  the  state  of  public  and  private  morals,  but  of  the  results  produced 
by  a  faith  so  dark  in  its  tenets,  so  intense,  and  so  absorbing.  Among 
the  early  Puritans  the  belief  that  they  were  a  chosen  people  was  very 
strong,  and  every  affliction  which  visited  the  community  was  regarded 
as  the  direct  action  of  God,  to  punish  the  people  because  the  churches 
had  become  worldly,  or  for  neglect  of  religious  observances,  or  for  sin 
of  one  sort  or  another.  With  such  opinions,  and  guided  largely  in 
practice  by  the  Old  Testament,  the  Puritans  not  only  made  religion  a 
test  of  citizenship,  and  enforced  to  the  last  point  the  performance  of 
religious  duties,  but  they  legislated  in  the  most  parental  and  sump 
tuary  fashion  about  everything,  no  matter  how  trifling,  which  they 
conceived  could  in  any  way  affect  morals.  The  representatives  and 
the  magistrates  dealt  by  law  with  what  men  and  women  thought, 
said,  or  did  in  public  or  private  affairs ;  and  they  strove  to  regulate 

1  Upham's  Salem  Witchcraft,  i.,  ii.,  generally ;  New  England  Hist.  Gen.  Reg.,  vii., 
Diary  of  Noadiah  Russell ;  Massachusetts  Hist.  Coll.,  V.,  v.,  vi.,  Sewall's  Diary ;  New 
Hampshire  Hist.  Soc.,  i.,  255 ;  iii.,  Journal  of  John  Pike — Rhode  Island,  Greene's 
History  of  East  Greenwich,  p.  161. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  437 

what  they  should  eat  and  drink  and  wear,  and  how  they  should  de 
mean  themselves  under  all  circumstances.  They  exacted  in  the  most 
stringent  manner  respect  for  parents ;  and  for  misconduct  in  this  re 
spect,  in  strict  law,  the  penalty  was  death.  One  John  Porter,  of  Sa 
lem,  for  abusing  his  father  was  made  to  stand  on  the  gallows  with  a 
rope  round  his  neck,  was  soundly  whipped,  fined,  and  imprisoned,  and 
only  saved  from  death  by  the  intercession  of  his  mother.  The  son  of 
Major  Waldron,  of  New  Hampshire,  for  drinking,  disorderly  conduct, 
and  abuse  of  his  father,  was,  on  the  latter's  complaint,  arrested,  chain 
ed  to  a  post,  whipped  if  he  did  not  work,  and  his  labor  sold  for  the 
benefit  of  the  public.  Duelling  was  strongly  condemned,  and  partici 
pants  in  the  few  combats  which  occurred  in  Boston  were  forced  to 
flee  the  country.  The  strictest  and  most  perfect  order  was  maintain 
ed  in  the  towns  and  villages.  The  constables  made  the  rounds  ev 
ery  evening,  arrested  all  loose  characters,  and  followed  strangers  into 
taverns,  in  order  to  be  satisfied  as  to  their  conduct  and  purposes. 
Two  specific  examples  will  give  better  than  anything  else  an  idea  of 
the  extent  to  which  the  civil  power  dealt  with  private  morals  and  in 
dividual  opinion.  In  the  year  1662  John  Spofford,  of  Boston,  cursed 
certain  merchants  because  they  refused  to  sell  corn  in  a  time  of  scar 
city,  and  for  this  offence  was  brought  before  the  court  and  tried  for  a 
misdemeanor.  He  was  acquitted,  however,  on  pleading  from  Prov 
erbs,1  "  He  that  withholdeth  corn,  the  people  shall  curse  him ;  but 
blessing  shall  be  upon  the  head  of  him  that  selleth  it."  The  quota 
tion  was  certainly  in  point,  and  Solomon,  although  not  an  authority 
known  to  the  common  law,  was  fully  recognized  as  a  learned  judge  in 
New  England.  In  New  Haven,  a  few  years  earlier,  one  John  Meigs,  a 
currier  and  tanner,  fell  under  the  displeasure  of  the  town  for  the  qual 
ity  of  his  leather  and  shoes,  and  was  brought  into  court,  where  he  had 
apparently  been  before  on  a  like  charge,  to  be  punished  for  his  of 
fences.  In  delivering  judgment,  the  court  said,  "  In  a  single  pair  of 
shoes  several  evils  appear :  such  as  contempt  of  court,  continued  un 
righteousness,  and  other  similar  evils ;  and  how  many  shoes  he  had 
made  and  sold  of  such  faulty  materials,  and  so  loaded  with  evils,  the 
court  say  they  know  not."  The  offending  cobbler  was  soon  after 
obliged  to  leave  the  colony.  Besides  the  action  of  the  civil  power, 
the  Church  and  the  community  itself  sometimes  undertook  to  regulate 
morals  and  manners,  the  ministers,  of  course,  taking  the  lead.  John 

1  xi.,  26. 


438  HISTORY  OF  THE 

Cotton  and  Elder  Gushing  petitioned  to  have  the  taverns  closed  to 
check  drunkenness ;  and  a  minister's  wife,  at  the  same  period,  who 
was  thought  to  dress  too  finely,  was  denounced  for  "  carnal-minded- 
ness."  Dress  was  a  fruitful  topic  for  reproof,  as  it  was  a  fertile  occa 
sion  for  the  exhibition  of  a  worldly  spirit.  The  mode  of  wearing  the 
hair  was  especially  disquieting.  Among  the  early  Puritans  long  hair, 
or  love-locks — recalling  the  Cavaliers,  those  sons  of  Belial — came  to 
be  regarded  with  particular  abhorrence,  and  an  association,  headed  by 
John  Endicott,  was  formed  for  its  suppression ;  while  at  a  later  time 
it  was  strongly  denounced  by  Wiggles  worth,  eminent  among  New  Eng 
land  divines,  as  effeminate,  vicious,  and  indicative  of  pride.  The  in 
troduction  of  wigs  was  another  subject  of  sore  trouble  and  anxiety 
to  the  strict  members  of  the  Church ;  and  Sewall,  "  the  judge  of  the 
great  assize,"  who  felt  deeply  the  evil  of  this  new  fashion,  expostu 
lated  with  those  who  adopted  it,  and  filled  his  diary  with  lamentations 
over  this  grievous  sin. 

Such,  in  mere  outline,  was  the  general  character  of  Puritan  morali 
ty,  sharply  watched  and  guarded  by  both  Church  and  State ;  and  such, 
in  all  essential  points,  it  remained  down  to  the  Revolution.  Here,  as 
elsewhere,  the  only  change  was  in  a  gradual  softening  and  modifica 
tion  of  the  original  system.  Puritan  austerity  slowly  relaxed  every 
where,,  but  more  rapidly  in  Boston,  from  the  effects  of  the  society 
formed  by  the  officers  of  the  Crown.  Yet,  despite  this  relaxation, 
when  the  fact  was  known  that  Sir  Harry  Frankland  kept  Agnes  Sur- 
riage  in  his  house  as  his  mistress,  the  popular  indignation  was  so  great 
that,  although  Frankland  was  the  most  important  Crown  officer,  next 
to  the  Governor,  he  was  obliged  to  withdraw  into  the  country,  taking 
the  fair  but  erring  Agnes  with  him.  There  was  a  still  further  relaxa 
tion  during  and  after  the  French  war ;  but,  as  a  rule,  the  morality  of 
New  England  remained  of  a  very  rigid  quality.  There  were,  of  course, 
outbreaks  against  so  severe  a  system,  even  in  the  earliest  times ;  and 
when  the  stringency  diminished,  there  was  a  general  lowering  of  the 
standard.  The  two  failings  to  which  there  was  always  the  greatest  in 
clination  were  intemperance  and  incontinence — the  latter  increased,  no 
doubt,  by  the  curious  practice  of  "  bundling  or  tarrying,"  which  must 
have  produced  a  good  deal  of  trouble  from  its  very  nature,  although 
the  balance  of  evidence  is  in  favor  of  the  general  innocence  of  the  habit. 
But  even  in  these  respects  the  laxity  of  morals  was  anything  but  ex 
treme,  and  probably  less  than  in  most  communities ;  while  in  other 
directions  the  public  and  private  morals  were  very  high,  and  it  is  not 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  439 

a  little  curious  that  there  was  no  violent  reaction  and  no  outburst 
of  vice  when  the  old  iron  system  gave  way.1 

Passing  from  general  morality  to  the  more  specific  question  of 
crime  and  its  close  ally,  pauperism,  we  find  but  trifling  differences  be 
tween  New  England  and  the  other  colonies.  Crime,  especially  of  an 
aggravated  sort,  was  somewhat  rarer  in  the  eastern  even  than  in  the 
middle  or  southern  provinces ;  and  after  the  dread  of  savages  had  pass 
ed  away,  doors  and  windows  were  always  left  unbarred  in  the  country. 
The  roads  were  perfectly  safe.  Young  girls  not  only  travelled  alone  in 
public  conveyances,  where  they  were  universally  well  treated  and  pro 
tected,  but  rode  through  lonely  woods  after  nightfall,  unguarded  and 
without  fear  or  molestation.  The  early  penal  codes  were,  perhaps, 
severer  than  those  elsewhere,  but  at  a  later  time  the  practice  did  not 
vary  much  from  the  common  standard  of  the  eighteenth  century.  The 
law  affixed  the  extreme  penalty  to  many  offences.  Not  only  murder, 
but  arson,  blasphemy,  rape,  adultery,  abuse  of  parents  by  a  child  over 
sixteen  years  of  age,  and  repetitions  of  theft  or  highway-robbery,  were 
punished  with  death,  although  the  sentence  was  not  often  carried  out, 
except  for  the  first  two  mentioned.  The  ordinary  mode  of  inflicting 
death  was  by  hanging;  bat  there  were  a  few  instances  after  1681  of 
negroes,  male  and  female,  burned  at  the  stake  for  murder  or  arson. 
The  peculiar  feature  of  the  Puritan  criminal  system  was  the  extreme 
publicity  which  they  aimed  to  give  it.  Murderers  were  always  brought 
into  church  on  the  Sunday  before  their  execution,  and  preached  to  by 
some  learned  divine  for  nearly  two  hours.  To  this  were  added  lengthy 
prayers  at  the  scaffold,  set  up  in  some  public  place,  where  the  people 
flocked  to  see  the  punishment  inflicted.  The  suppression  of  the  pirates 
afforded  great  opportunities  in  this  respect,  and  on  several  occasions 
they  were  marshalled  in  small  squads  in  one  of  the  principal  Boston 
churches,  to  serve  as  an  edifying  text  for  a  long  discourse.  One 
of  them  balked  this  proceeding  by  refusing  to  go  to  church,  and  by 
jumping  into  the  cart  with  a  nosegay  in  his  button-hole,  and  going 
smiling  and  bowing  to  the  gallows  in  true  London  fashion,  instead  of 

1  Brissot,  p.  71 ;  Nason's  Life  of  Frankland;  TJpham's  Salem  Witchcraft,  i. ; 
Tyler's  American  Literature,  i.,  104 ;  Proc.  Massachusetts  Hist.  Soc.,  iii.,  165  ;  Mas 
sachusetts  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  IV.,  v.,  56,  269 ;  New  England  Hist.  Gen.  Reg.,  i.,  Wiggles- 
worth  ;  ix.,  318 ;  John  Dunton's  Letters  ;  Anburey,  ii.,  39  ;  Coll.  Massachusetts  Hist. 
Soc.,  III.,  iii.,  326— New  Hampshire,  Massachusetts  Hist.  Soc.  Proc.,  1878,  Waldron ; 
Parker's  Londonderry — Connecticut,  Peters's  General  History ;  New  Haven  Hist, 
Soc.,  i.,  39 ;  History  of  Glastenbury ;  History  of  Durham,  p.  171. 


440  HISTORY  OF  THE 

in  a  state  of  horror-stricken  gloom.  But,  as  a  rule,  criminals  of  this 
sort  not  only  suffered  death,  but  endured  many  fervent  delineations, 
both  of  their  earthly  crimes  and  of  the  eternal  torture  which  awaited 
them.  The  Puritan  theory  was  that  sin,  public  or  private,  must  be 
repented  of,  and  expiated,  if  necessary,  in  all  its  deformity  and  with 
the  utmost  publicity.  From  Charles  Stuart  to  the  meanest  malefactor, 
all  sinners  and  criminals  were  not  only  to  receive  punishment  in  the 
full  glare  of  noonday,  but  were  to  be  held  up  and  expatiated  upon  for 
the  benefit  and  solemn  warning  of  the  people.  The  same  theory  ran 
through  their  whole  system  of  dealing  with  petty  offences  and  misde 
meanors.  Jails,  of  course,  they  had — dark,  mean,  repulsive  places,  and 
usually  in  conspicuous  positions,  like  the  gallows  and  whipping-post ; 
and  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution  convicts  were  sent  to  Castle  Island, 
near  Boston,  and  put  to  hard  labor  at  making  nails;  but  even  then 
their  prison  system  was  very  rude,  and  far  behind  that  of  Pennsylva 
nia.  There  was  no  faith  in  confinement,  labor,  or  prison  discipline, 
as  a  punishment  or  remedy  for  crime,  and  it  was  long  before  this  doc 
trine  was  eradicated.  Fines  were  the  mildest  form  of  penalty,  and  the 
punishments  commonly  in  vogue  were  whipping,  branding,  cropping, 
mutilation,  the  pillory,  or  the  stocks.  All  were  arranged  in  such  a 
way  as  to  make  the  culprit's  offence  as  conspicuous  and  public  as  pos 
sible,  and  call  attention  to  it  in  every  conceivable  way,  great  inge 
nuity  being  manifested  in  accomplishing  these  purposes  in  both  seri 
ous  and  light  cases.  The  burned  scar  was  the  worst  mark,  but  letters 
of  brilliant  color,  worn  for  a  term  of  years  and  indicative  of  certain 
crimes,  were  a  favorite  device  to  at  once  brand  and  punish.  Scolds 
were  gagged  and  set  at  their  own  doors,  subjects  of  contemplation 
for  the  passers-by,  and  many  offences  were  expiated  not  only  by  stripes, 
but  by  sitting  on  the  gallows  or  on  a  raised  platform,  with  a  placard 
on  the  breast,  on  market-days.  There  was  but  little  change  in  the  man 
ner  of  dealing  with  crime  during  the  eighteenth  century.  Some  of 
the  odd  Puritan  fancies  disappeared ;  but  the  lash,  the  branding-iron, 
and  the  pillory  continued  in  general  use  in  New  England,  as  in  all  the 
other  dominions  of  Great  Britain,  down  to  the  Revolution.1 

1  Claude  Blanchard,  p.  185  ;  Long  Island  Hist.  Soc.,  i.,  Journal  of  the  Labadists ; 
Drake,  Nooks  and  Corners  of  the  New  England  Coast — Jails,  Pirates  ;  Proc.  Massa 
chusetts  Hist.  Soc.,  i.,  320 ;  iii.,  Bennet's  MS.  Hist.,  p.  109 ;  New  England  Hist.  Gen. 
Reg.,  ix.,  45  ;  John  Dunton's  Letters ;  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  405  ;  Massachusetts  Hist. 
Soc.  Coll.,  I.,  v.,  63;  II.,  i.,  1769, 1797  ;  V.,  vi.,  Ill— New  Hampshire,  Proc.  Massa 
chusetts  Hist.  Soc.,  1878  ;  Rochefoucauld,  ii.,  190  ;  Hist,  of  Barnstead,  Court  Rec- 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  441 

Travellers  at  the  period  of  the  war  and  shortly  after,  assert  that  nei 
ther  poor  persons  nor  strolling  beggars  were  ever  seen  in  New  Eng 
land.  There  was,  in  fact,  comparatively  little  pauperism  in  the  coun 
try,  in  many  places  none  at  all  prior  to  the  Revolution  ;  but  there  was 
always  more  or  less  of  it  in  the  large  towns,  although  it  did  not  ap 
pear  on  the  surface.  The  settlement  laws,  which  gave  a  residence  af 
ter  three  months,  were  very  strict,  and  rigidly  enforced.  A  stranger 
coming  to  any  town  or  village,  was  at  once  sought  out  by  the  officers, 
and  compelled  to  satisfy  them  that  he  could  support  himself  and  fam 
ily.  If  this  assurance  was  not  furnished,  the  new-comer  was  forth 
with  "  warned  off,"  and  if  he  did  not  heed  the  warning,  he  received 
twenty  lashes  and  was  driven  from  the  town.  Such  paupers  as  there 
were  were  treated  on  a  simple  and  practical  system  characteristic  of 
New  England,  but  which  spread  far  beyond  its  original  limits.  Pau 
pers  were  set  up  at  auction,  and  sold  to  the  lowest  bidder  for  their 
support,  who  took  them  for  such  work  as  he  thought  he  could  get 
out  of  them.  Debtors  occasionally  made  an  assignment  of  all  their 
property,  and  were  then  supported  directly  by  the  town,  but  the  or 
dinary  way  was  by  auction.  In  Boston,  as  in  all  towns  of  any  size, 
and  possessing  commerce,  there  was  a  considerable  number  of  poor 
persons,  who  received  much  charity  both  private  and  public,  and  were 
kindly  dealt  with ;  and  there,  too,  there  were  from  a  comparatively 
early  time  both  workhouses  and  almshouses,  which  were  very  rare  in 
the  country  and  smaller  towns.  The  usual  method  was  that  just  de 
scribed,  by  which  the  pauper  was  rendered  as  self-supporting  as  pos 
sible,  and  which,  although  harsh,  and  probably  abused  in  some  cases, 
was  thoroughly  carried  out,  did  much  toward  checking  pauperism,  and, 
although  rough,  was  certainly  effective  and  economical.1 

One  cause  of  the  greater  rarity  of  crime  and  pauperism  in  New 
England  than  in  the  other  colonies  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  the 
servile  classes  were  numerically  very  small.  For  a  long  time  convicts 
and  indented  servants  were  unknown,  and  when  the  latter  began  to 

ord — Connecticut,  Abbe  Robin,  p.  42  ;  Brissot,  p.  109  ;  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  527  ;  Bar 
ber's  Hist.  Coll.,  p.  56  ;  Hollister's  History  of  Connecticut,  i.,428 — Rhode  Island, 
Greene's  East  Greenwich,  p.  19. 

1  Proc.  Massachusetts  Hist.  Soc.,  iii.,  Bennet's  MS.  Hist,  p.  109 ;  Coll.  Massa 
chusetts  Hist.  Soc.,  V.,  vi.,  Sewall,  p.  8— New  Hampshire,  Chase,  Hist,  of  Chester, 
p.  258  ;  Hist,  of  Rindge,  p.  385  ;  Hist,  of  Dumbarton,  p.  138 — Connecticut,  Wansey, 
p.  61 ;  Hist,  of  New  London,  p.  474 ;  Hist,  of  Durham,  p.  165 — Rhode  Island,  Wes 
terly  and  its  Witnesses,  p.  139. 


442  HISTORY  OF  THE 

come  the}7  were  well  treated,  the  laws  for  their  government  were  mild, 
and  their  rights  were  protected.  There  were  "  redemptioners  "  in  the 
eighteenth  century,  and  down  to  the  Revolution  advertisements  "of 
parcels  of  Irish  servants  for  sale  "  are  found  in  the  newspapers ;  but 
they  were  so  few,  and  their  opportunities  for  advancement  were  so 
good  in  a  region  where  labor  was  not  a  disgrace,  that  they  rapidly 
merged  themselves  in  the  body  of  the  people,  and  were  as  a  class 
perfectly  insignificant.1  The  same,  as  may  be  seen  from  the  esti 
mates  of  population,  held  true  in  large  measure  of  the  negro  slaves. 
Slaves  there  were  in  Massachusetts  and  elsewhere  in  New  England 
from  the  earliest  times,  but  the  general  drift  of  public  opinion  was 
against  slavery ;  and  such  a  man  as  Samuel  Sewall  published  a  tract 
against  it  at  the  very  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Their 
intermarriage  with  whites  was  forbidden  under  heavy  penalties,  but 
marriages  among  themselves  were  authorized  and  guarded.  The  laws, 
as  a  rule,  were  mild  in  regard  to  them,  and  punishment  was  carefully 
limited.  They  were  easily  manumitted,  and  soon  after  the  Revolution 
were  slaves  only  in  name.  They  were  most  numerous  in  Boston  and 
Connecticut,  and  were  invariably  employed  as  domestic  servants,  kind 
ly  treated,  and  instructed  in  reading,  and  in  the  Bible.  So  great,  in 
deed,  was  the  apparent  equality  of  master  and  slave  in  Connecticut 
that  a  Boston  lady,  early  in  the  eighteenth  century,  speaks  of  it  with 
surprise  and  dislike,  having  seen  negroes  eat  at  their  owner's  table, 
and  having  heard  of  a  case  of  arbitration  between  a  master  and  his 
slave.  Slaves,  in  fact,  as  a  class,  were  wholly  unimportant,  and  as  a 
domestic  institution  had  little  or  no  effect.3 

Feeble,  however,  as  slavery  undoubtedly  was  in  New  England,  its 
mere  existence,  carrying  with  it  the  principle  of  a  servile  class,  had 
some  influence  probably  in  the  maintenance  of  strong  social  distinc 
tions.  An  aristocracy  unquestionably  existed  in  New  England  from 
the  beginning,  always  possessing  great  power,  and  fully  recognized ; 
but  it  rested  neither  on  great  landed  estates  nor  on  a  system  of 
primogeniture,  and  flourished  in  the  midst  of  a  society  which  was 
in  theory  democratic.  The  foundations  of  rank  were  birth,  ances- 

1  Barber's  Hist.  Coll.  of  Conn.,  p.  166 ;  Westerly  and  its  Witnesses,  p.  143. 

8  Upham's  Salem  Witchcraft,  f.,  Introduction  ;  Proc.  Massachusetts  Hist.  Soc.,  Hi., 
Bennet,  p.  109  ;  Massachusetts  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  V.,  v.,  163,  SewalPs  Tract  against 
Slavery;  V.,  vi.,  Sewall,  16, 143;  Ibid.,  I.,  iv.,  196;  II.,  i.,  81— New  Hampshire, 
Rochefoucauld,  ii.,  190 — Connecticut,  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  530;  Mad.  Knight's  Jour 
nal  ;  Fowler's  History  of  Durham,  p.  161. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AME1UCA.  443 

tral  or  individual  service  to  the  state,  ability,  education,  and,  to  some 
extent,  wealth.  The  aristocracy  thus  produced  was  respected  and  ac 
knowledged,  but  its  existence  was  uncertain  and  precarious,  without 
the  usual,  essential,  and  only  enduring  supports  of  great  estates  and 
of  primogeniture.  There  were  some  large  landed  estates  in  New 
England ;  but  they  were  neither  numerous  nor  important,  and  carried 
nothing  with  them.  Sir  William  Pepperell,  it  was  said,  could  ride  from 
Portsmouth  to  Saco  without  leaving  his  own  acres,  and  in  the  other 
New  England  colonies  there  were  a  few  large  domains,  but  they  had 
no  real  hold  upon  either  the  social  or  political  system.  They  were  not 
congenial  either  to  the  character,  habits,  or  pursuits  of  the  people,  or 
to  the  climate  and  nature  of  the  soil  and  country.  The  New  England 
aristocracy  was  to  be  found  chiefly  in  the  larger  towns,  although  ev 
ery  village  had  its  local  "  Squire,"  who  stood  at  the  head  of  society. 
This  absence  of  landed  estates  had  a  strong  tendency  to  discourage 
any  system  of  entail,  even  if  the  people  had  been  inclined  to  it.  The 
method  of  descent  was  that  familiar  to  the  English  law  as  gavelkind, 
land  being  held  under  the  charter  in  free  and  common  socage  of  the 
manor  of  East  Greenwich  and  according  to  the  custom  of  Kent. 
There  was  always  perfect  freedom  of  bequest  throughout  New  Eng 
land,  and  although  the  Biblical  double  portion  to  the  eldest  son  was 
recognized  in  the  "  Body  of  Liberties,"  and  continued  down  to  the  year 
1789  in  the  distribution  of  intestate  estates,  besides  being  always 
common  in  wills,  yet  law  and  custom  united  in  giving  ample  provi 
sion  both  to  the  younger  sons  and  the  daughters.  The  tendency,  there 
fore,  was  in  favor  of  the  division  of  property,  and  against  the  preser 
vation  and  establishment  of  large  estates  and  wealthy  families.  The 
main  supports  of  an  aristocracy  were,  therefore,  wanting,  and  when  oth 
er  causes  ceased  to  operate,  the  aristocratic  system  fell  rapidly  to  pieces 
in  a  society  which  was  in  fact  and  theory  democratic.  But  down  to 
the  Revolution,  and,  indeed,  for  many  years  subsequently,  these  other 
causes  were  vigorous,  and  aristocracy  flourished  and  was  strong.  The 
robust  conservatism  of  their  race  led  the  people  of  New  England  to 
regard  with  great  respect  their  public  officers  and  magistrates.  Birth, 
wealth,  and  social  position  were  almost  necessary  qualities  for  the  at 
tainment  of  high  office,  and  simplicity  and  dignity  characterized  the 
rulers  elected  by  the  people.  Bradstreet,  the  last  of  the  colonial  gov 
ernors,  lived  in  a  house  of  ordinary  appearance,  and  not  one  of  the 
most  costly.  He  dressed  in  black  silk,  but  not  sumptuously,  and  his 
manner  was  quiet  and  grave.  Trumbull,  the  war-governor  of  Connec- 


444  HISTORY  OF  THE 

ticnt,  impressed  Chastellux  as  the  great  magistrate  of  a  small  repub 
lic;  and  this  was  the  type  of  the  rulers  of  New  England.  They  re 
spected  their  office,  but  regarded  it  as  a  position  to  which  they  were 
in  a  measure  entitled  by  their  standing  in  the  community.  The  weight 
of  social  position  in  such  matters  is  aptly  illustrated  by  an  incident 
which  occurred  in  Boston  in  the  year  1759.  The  removal  of  a  cer 
tain  Mr.  Phelps  from  the  commission  of  the  peace  was  urged  because 
he  was  the  son  of  a  bricklayer,  and  not  of  a  magistrate.  The  ground 
of  objection  was  admitted  without  question  to  be  perfectly  sufficient, 
and  the  only  effort  was  to  disprove  the  fact.  Social  distinctions  were 
fully  recognized  and  carefully  observed  in  matters  relating  to  public 
office;  but  in  every-day  life  and  in  common  affairs  they  were  carried 
even  further. 

At  the  very  outset,  in  the  letters  in  answer  to  the  proposals  of  Lord 
Say  and  Lord  Brooke — which  aimed  at  the  establishment  of  nobili 
ty — classes  were  recognized,  and  the  practice  thus  begun  was  never 
abandoned  in  the  provinces.  All  the  leaders  of  the  great  emigration, 
and  many  of  their  followers,  were  drawn  from  the  English  gentry, 
were  men  of  property  and  position,  and  proud  of  their  descent.  The 
difference  thus  established  between  gentlemen,  yeomen,  merchants,  and 
mechanics  was  never  lost  sight  of,  although  the  lines  were  not  drawn 
quite  so  sharply  as  in  the  mother  country.  The  first  named  were  the 
best  educated  men,  and  of  the  best  families  in  the  community,  who 
sometimes  farmed  large  estates,  but  as  a  rule  filled  the  pulpit,  the 
bar,  the  magistracy,  the  bench,  and  the  profession  of  medicine.  Titles 
were  sparingly  but  carefully  used.  Honorable  was  applied  only  to 
governors,  esquire  was  at  first  rarely  used  except  of  men  in  high  of 
fice,  and  master  and  mistress  belonged  to  those  alone  who  had  birth, 
education,  and  position.  Among  the  mass  of  the  people  the  ordinary 
prefix  was  merely  good-man  or  good-wife,  or,  still  more  simply,  neigh 
bor.  These  distinctions  had  great  importance  in  the  churches  and  col 
leges.  In  the  former  the  seats  were  "  dignified,"  and  the  congrega 
tion  was  arranged  "  according  to  the  places  they  are  in,  the  age  they 
bear,  the  estates  they  enjoy;"  or,  in  another  formula,  according  to 
i4  authority,  age,  wealth,  house-lots."  The  business  of  thus  distribut 
ing  the  pews  and  seating  people  according  to  rank  was  a  work  of 
great  delicacy,  and  an  event  of  deep  interest  in  every  village.  It 
gave  rise  to  many  heart-burnings,  quarrels,  and  complaints,  but  it  was 
none  the  less  enforced,  and  scrupulously  carried  out.  In  the  college 
the  lists  of  students  drawn  up  during  the  freshman  year  were  made 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  445 

out  on  the  same  system,  and  excited  great  interest.  It  was  easy  to 
fix  on  the  students  for  the  top  and  bottom  of  the  list,  but  the  in 
termediate  places  roused  much  contention.  When  the  list  was  com 
pleted  it  was  hung  up  in  the  college  buttery,  and  every  student  retain 
ed  throughout  the  course  the  place  thus  assigned,  unless  he  was  de 
graded.  Besides  the  social  recognition  thus  conveyed,  the  students  at 
the  top  of  the  list  had  most  influence  and  the  best  rooms.  Yale 
abolished  the  system  in  1768,  and  Harvard  five  years  later,  substitut 
ing  an  alphabetical  arrangement;  but  the  classes  of  provincial  times 
still  appear  in  the  catalogues,  graded  according  to  social  position,  a 
puzzle  to  their  democratic  posterity.  In  Boston  and  some  of  the 
larger  towns  the  aristocracy,  influenced  by  the  presence  and  society 
of  the  Crown  officials,  made  more  display  of  their  rank  than  their 
predecessors,  or  than  their  country  brethren.  They  had  fine  houses, 
estates  in  the  country,  and  many  slaves ;  they  put  their  coats-of-arms 
upon  their  coaches,  and  wore  cloth,  velvet,  and  lace,  while  the  mass 
of  the  people  dressed  in  homespun.  But  the  great  body  of  the  New 
England  aristocracy  adhered  to  the  ways  of  their  fathers.  No  mat 
ter  what  their  social  and  official  rank  might  be,  they  were  all  brought 
up  to  work  with  their  hands ;  the  children  were  expected  to  earn  their 
living  by  professions  or  otherwise,  and  no  drones  were  permitted  in 
the  hive. 

The  most  striking  and  most  important  feature,  and  the  one  show 
ing  most  clearly  the  existence  and  strength  of  the  aristocracy,  was  con 
nected  with  the  franchise,  for  which  religion  was  one  test,  property  in 
land  the  other.  When  the  former  was  abolished,  the  latter  was  con 
tinued,  and  survived  even  the  Revolution.  A  conversation  which  has 
been  preserved,  and  which  occurred  at  the  very  end  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  between  Increase  Sumner — afterward  Governor  of  Massachu 
setts — and  Fisher  Ames,  affords  an  excellent  illustration  of  this  point. 
A  law  was  before  the  legislature  to  modify  the  qualification  for  vot 
ing,  and  Ames  said  it  would  give  any  man  who  earned  sixty  pounds  a 
year,  but  had  no  property,  the  right  to  vote.  "  Why,"  replied  Judge 
Sumner,  "  that  construction  never  entered  any  man's  head.  It  amounts 
almost  to  universal  suffrage.  It  never  will  prevail ;  but  if  it  does, 
Brother  Ames,  my  confidence  in  it  (the  government)  is  very  much  di 
minished."  Yet  the  spirit  of  equality  reigned  even  then,  and  French 
dukes  remarked  with  surprise  that  the  rich  shook  hands  with  the  poor. 

In  every  department  of  life,  in  fact,  the  aristocratic  system  prevail 
ed  ;  and,  maintained  as  it  was  solely  by  the  conservative  instincts  of 


446  HISTORY  OF  THE 

the  people,  and  the  ability  of  its  defenders,  it  is  surprising  that  it 
lasted  so  long,  and  held  such  complete  sway.  The  aristocracy  of  New 
England  did  not  have  at  bottom  any  of  the  great  strength  of  that  in 
Virginia,  but  its  existence  was  as  real,  and  its  power  almost  as  great 
and  unquestioned.1 

Although  great  estates  were  few,  large  and  costly  houses  were  nu 
merous,  and  afforded  an  opportunity,  readily  taken  advantage  of,  for 
comfort  and  display.  From  the  earliest  times  the  magistrates  and  the 
wealthy  citizens  had  dwellings  of  a  superior  kind,  while  to  the  clergy 
were  given  the  best  houses  the  people  could  afford.  Handsome  houses 
were  most  numerous  in  the  seaport  and  larger  inland  towns,  and  their 
neighborhood.  They  lined  the  roads  for  twenty  miles  about  Boston, 
and  a  few  were  found  scattered  through  the  country  districts.  On 
many  of  them  sums  of  money  were  expended  which  in  those  days 
amounted  to  a  large  fortune.  The  Lee  house,  at  Marblehead,  which 
was  said  to  have  cost  ten  thousand  pounds,  was  built  of  stone,  hand 
somely  fitted  up  with  pictures  set  as  panels,  and  wainscoted  walls 
hung  with  tapestry.  Twenty  thousand  pounds  of  the  doubtfully- 
acquired  fortune  of  Godfrey  Malbone  were  sunk  in  his  house  in 
Newport,  and  the  same  gentleman  had,  besides,  a  beautiful  villa  out 
side  the  town.  In  Portsmouth  were  the  Cutts  and  Pepperell  houses, 
of  a  similar  character,  and  the  more  famous  Wentworth  house,  the 
home  of  the  Governors,  a  great,  rambling  mansion,  with  fifty -two 
rooms,  endless  panelling,  carved  mantel-pieces,  and  every  architectural 
extravagance  of  the  time.  In  Boston  and  its  immediate  neighbor 
hood  there  were  many  such  houses,  built  generally  of  stone  or  brick, 
and  sometimes  of  wood,  with  large,  low  rooms,  broad,  easy  staircases, 
and  great  fireplaces.  All  were  wainscoted  with  hard  wood,  sometimes 
with  mahogany  from  the  West  Indies,  and  were  adorned  with  tapes 
tries,  until  the  fashion  of  plaster  and  wall-papers  began  to  come  in 
just  before  the  Revolution.  Numerous  as  these  houses,  the  sure  marks 


1  Long  Island  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  i.,  Journal  of  Labadists ;  Hazard's  State  Papers,  i., 
877;  Nason's  Life  of  Frankland;  Proc.  Massachusetts  Hist.  Soc.,  VI.,  p.  32;  VII.. 
118;  New  England  Hist.  Soc.  Reg.,  ii.,  Old  Wills;  viii.,  115  ;  xi.,79  ;  xx.,  122  ;  xxiii., 
38 ;  Mag.  Amer.  History,  i.,  260 ;  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  405 ;  ii.,  214 — New  Hampshire, 
ibid.,  ii.,  190— Connecticut,  Wansey,  p.  61 ;  Massachusetts  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  I.,  x.,  99 ; 
Chastellux,  p.  30;  Peters's  General  History,  p.  220;  History  of  Windham  County, 
p.  93 ;  History  of  New  London,  p.  380 ;  Bouton,  Hist.  Discourse  of  Norwalk,  p.  52 ; 
Caulkins,  History  of  Norwich,  p.  122;  Timlow,  Sketches  of  Southington,  p.  181; 
Hollister's  History  of  Connecticut,  i.,  421— Rhode  Island,  Claude  Blanchard,  p.  78. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  447 

of  solid  fortunes,  were,  they  were  still  only  the  houses  of  the  aristoc 
racy,  and  the  homes  of  the  body  of  the  people  were  of  much  simpler 
construction.  When  the  villages  were  first  settled,  the  church  and  the 
block-house,  with  its  overhanging  upper  story,  rose  side  by  side,  and 
the  latter  remained  conspicuous  for  generations,  long  after  its  loop- 
holed  walls  had  ceased  to  have  any  practical  significance.  Around 
this  building  clustered  the  rude  dwellings  of  the  pioneers.  Gradual- 
]y  the  log  hut  was  replaced  by  the  "lean-to,"  a  frame  house  with 
steep  pitched  roof,  and  of  the  simplest  construction ;  and  this  in  its 
turn  was  succeeded  by  the  gambrel  or  hipped-roofed  houses,  of  which 
many  still  remain  in  undisturbed  corners.  These  frame  houses,  with 
gambrelled  and  gabled  roofs,  were  universal  throughout  New  England, 
varying  in  size  with  the  wealth  and  position  of  the  possessor.  Both 
they  and  their  ruder  predecessor,  the  "  lean-to,"  were  very  solidly  built, 
with  low-studded  rooms,  heavy  hewn-oak  timbers,  almost  as  enduring 
as  stone,  great  fireplaces,  masses  of  heavy  stone  chimneys,  and  diamond 
panes  in  the  windows.  The  chief  characteristics  of  the  New  England 
country  houses,  even  of  those,  and  they  were  many,  which  had  but  one 
story  and  an  attic,  were  simplicity,  solidity,  and  neatness.  Occasion 
ally  there  was  found  in  some  quiet  village  a  house  like  that  to  which 
Sir  Harry  Frankland  and  Agnes  Surriage  retreated  to  find  shelter  from 
the  virtuous  indignation  of  Boston.  The  Frankland  house,  at  Hopkin- 
ton,  stood  in  the  midst  of  gardens,  laid  out  in  the  old  style  with  box 
hedges  and  terraces.  The  house  itself  was  a  spacious,  comfortable 
building,  rising  picturesquely  among  the  trees,  with  dormer-windows, 
great  chimneys,  and  an  interior  hung  throughout  with  tapestry  and 
decorated  with  carving  and  painting.  Such  a  house,  however,  was  ex 
ceptional.  Almost  all  were  of  the  kind  just  described,  and  were  the 
dwellings  which,  with  orchards  and  gardens,  gave  the  air  of  thrift, 
prosperity,  and  comfort  which  every  traveller  remarked  in  the  New 
England  villages,  and  even  on  the  outlying  farms,  for  agriculture  was 
then  the  great  interest,  and  the  homestead  was  a  source  of  pride  as 
it  descended  from  generation  to  generation  of  permanent  families.1 

1  Brissot,  p.  101 ;  Nason's  Life  of  Frankland,  p.  41 ;  Drake,  Nooks  and  Corners 
of  the  New  England  Coast ;  Uphara's  Salem  Witchcraft,  i.,  Introduction  ;  Roche 
foucauld,  i.,  400, 473 ;  ii.,  202 ;  New  England  Hist.  Gen.  Reg.,  xxv.,  37— New  Hamp 
shire,  Drake,  ibid. ;  New  Hampshire  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  i.,  157 ;  Parker's  Londonderry, 
pp.  76,  94 — Connecticut,  Abbe  Robin,  p.  40;  History  of  Durham,  p.  165  ;  Nor  walk, 
Bouton,  p.  39 ;  Hollister's  History  of  Connecticut,  i.,  428— Rhode  Island,  Elkanab 
Watson's  Memoirs ;  Chastellux,  i.,  107 ;  Greene's  East  Greenwich,  p.  158. 


448  HISTORY  OF  THE 

The  general  similarity  in  the  matter  of  houses  was  but  part  of  the 
wider  uniformity  in  manners,  customs,  and  habits  of  thought  which 
has  been  already  alluded  to.  In  all  these  respects  the  people  of  New 
England,  from  Maine  to  the  western  border  of  Connecticut,  were  sub 
stantially  the  same.  On  one  side  only  did  they  have  neighbors ;  but 
while  there  was  a  strong  infusion  of  New  England  manners  in  New 
York,  Dutch  influence  had  produced  no  effect  upon  New  England. 
Such  differences  as  there  were  among  the  people  of  the  eastern  group 
of  provinces  were  simply  those  differences  of  degree  which  always  sub 
sist  between  town  and  country,  and  which  in  this  case  might  almost 
be  still  more  narrowly  limited,  as  those  between  Boston  and  the  rest 
of  the  provinces ;  for  in  the  smaller  towns  the  distinction  was  by  no 
means  strongly  marked. 

In  the  country,  therefore,  it  is  necessary  to  look  for  the  type  of 
New  England  life  and  manners,  since  only  a  small  portion  of  the  pop 
ulation  was  gathered  in  the  large  towns.  Yet,  at  the  same  time,  it 
must  be  remembered  that  one  strong  characteristic  of  the  New  Eng 
land  civilization,  as  contrasted  with  that  of  Virginia,  was  the  fact 
that  the  country  was  settled  and  occupied  not  by  individuals  but  by 
groups  of  persons,  or  communities  famous  in  history  as  the  township, 
the  organization  of  which  has  already  been  described.  There  were,  of 
course,  on  the  frontiers,  and  here  and  there  in  remote  places,  isolated 
farms ;  but  these  were  marked  exceptions,  and  the  country  was  cover 
ed  with  little  towns.  In  these  villages  the  church,  the  block-house, 
the  town-house,  the  school,  and  the  variety  store,  well  stocked  to  sup 
ply  everything  needed  by  the  farmers  and  their  families,  were  built 
near  together,  and  formed  a  central  point.  Around  them,  and  in  close 
proximity,  were  the  homes  of  the  minister  and  of  the  teacher,  and  the 
houses  and  shops  of  those  who  plied  the  various  trades,  always  well 
conducted  and  well  represented  in  every  New  England  village.  Be 
yond  and  around  this  little  nucleus  of  houses  were  scattered  the  homes 
of  the  farmers,  some  very  near,  others  at  a  considerable  distance  alone 
on  outlying  tracts.  In  this  arrangement  there  was  always  a  point 
where  the  life  of  the  neighborhood  centered,  where  some  social  inter 
course  could  be  obtained ;  and  circumscribed  as  this  life  was,  it  was 
nevertheless  far  removed  from  the  absolute  solitude  so  common  in 
Virginia,  and  was  not  without  marked  effect  upon  the  character  of 
the  population.  The  striking  features  of  this  New  England  society 
were  general  well  -  being,  increasing  industry,  and  equality  of  condi 
tion.  There  was  neither  indigence  nor  wealth,  neither  very  rich  nor 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  449 

very  poor,  but  an  entire  community  of  men  and  women  in  good  cir 
cumstances,  and  maintained  there  by  unrelenting  toil.  In  Rhode 
Island  the  standard  was  somewhat  lower,  owing  to  the  manner  of 
settlement ;  the  people  were  poorer,  agriculture  was  ruder,  there  was 
more  idleness  and  litigiousness,  the  towns  were  less  well  ordered,  and 
the  roads  and  bridges  less  well  kept  up  than  in  the  adjoining  prov 
inces.  But  with  this  exception,  which  did  not  go  very  deep,  hard- 
earned  and  deserved  but  moderate  prosperity  prevailed.  Every  one 
worked,  both  men  and  women,  all  day  and  every  day,  except  Sunday, 
the  former  on  the  farms,  the  latter  in-doors  at  household  affairs,  and 
with  the  unceasing  spinning-wheel,  and  sometimes  in  the  fields.  All 
the  sons  and  daughters  were  taught  trades,  besides  learning  to  man 
age  the  farm.  In  that  climate,  and  with  that  soil,  man  could  never 
let  go  his  hold  of  nature,  and  that  he  did  not  do  so  is  one  of  the  great 
est  proofs  that  we  have  of  the  iron  persistence  of  the  English  race. 
Thus  the  struggle,  not  only  to  make  advances,  but  even  to  retain  that 
which  had  been  already  won  from  earth  and  air,  was  constant  and 
severe,  leaving  a  deep  impression  upon  those  who  fought  the  battle. 
The  conflict  marked  them  both  physically  and  mentally,  although  they 
were  still  conspicuous  for  purity  of  blood  and  fineness  of  race.  The 
round,  red  look  of  the  Englishman  had  gone,  and  the  New  Englander 
was  a  tall,  sinewy,  powerful  but  spare  man,  with  rather  a  gaunt  look, 
and  a  face  in  which  all  the  lines  and  contours  had  been  sharpened  and 
strengthened.  The  women  were  noted  for  their  beauty,  which  was 
remarked  by  travellers  from  other  colonies,  and  from  the  Old  World ; 
but  these  same  observers  also  record  the  fact  that  this  beauty  faded 
early,  and  that  the  delicate  tints  disappeared,  which  they  attribute  to 
immoderate  indulgence  in  hot  tea  and  hotter  bread,  with  consequent 
indigestion,  prosaic  reasons  which  accounted  also  for  the  loss  and  de 
cay  of  teeth  noticeable  in  both  sexes. 

As  the  features  of  the  men  had  grown  sharp,  and  those  of  the 
women  more  delicate  in  the  New  World,  so  did  their  minds  grow 
more  acute.  The  people  of  New  England  were  very  shrewd,  quick, 
and  inquisitive.  A  Virginia  gentleman,  who  travelled  a  good  deal  in 
the  eastern  provinces,  said  that  on  arriving  at  an  inn  he  always,  in 
order  to  avoid  the  delay  caused  by  inevitable  questions,  made  a  brief 
statement  as  to  himself  and  his  business,  told  those  about  that  he 
knew  no  more,  and  then  asked  for  supper  for  himself  and  his  horse. 
Yet,  with  all  their  queries,  they  were  at  bottom  kind  and  hospitable, 
although  they  were  very  formal,  stiff,  and  reserved  with  strangers  af- 

29 


450  HISTORY  OF  THE 

ter  the  fashion  of  their  race  and  creed.  Their  failing  was  in  pushing 
too  far  their  natural  acuteness.  They  were  great  adepts  at  bargains 
and  trade ;  and  although  they  adhered  to  the  letter  of  the  law  with 
scrupulous  fidelity,  they  were  far  too  ready  to  infringe  its  spirit. 
Necessity,  working  on  strong  intelligence,  had  made  them  an  ingen 
ious,  enterprising,  and  inventive  people,  with  a  readiness  and  capacity 
to  do  any  work  in  life  with  fair  success,  a  quality  which  has  grown 
into  a  national  attribute.  They  were  almost  universally  frugal,  hard 
working,  thrifty,  intelligent,  and  honest ;  but  they  were  also  hard,  of 
ten  narrow,  averse  to  spending  money,  and  not  generous  either  in  their 
conception  or  mode  of  life.  They  had  a  rigid  sense  of  duty  and  of 
religion,  and  a  lurking  inherited  distrust  of  enjoyment,  for  which  they 
made  up  in  some  measure  by  keen  perceptions,  a  strong  sense  of  the 
ridiculous,  and  a  dry,  caustic  wit  mingling  with  an  odd  sort  of  humor, 
which  is  of  a  fine  and  peculiar  sort,  and  which  was  possible  only  in  a 
community  where  the  whole  body  of  the  people  was  at  once  shrewd 
and  educated. 

In  every  way  they  were  a  simple,  unpretentious  race.  Everything 
about  them  and  their  houses  was  neat  and  clean,  and  of  good  quality, 
but  not  showy.  The  men  wore  homespun,  and  in  many  places  moose- 
hide  or  sheepskin  breeches,  while  the  women's  dresses  were  of  coarse, 
strong  linen.  On  Sunday,  partly  from  the  immense  importance  at 
tached  to  the  day,  and  partly  from  the  love  of  finery  innate  in  human 
nature,  there  was  much  dressing  in  every  little  town,  and  even  in  the 
wild  border  settlements  of  Maine.  The  men  put  on  their  cloth  coats 
and  black  beaver  hats,  the  women  their  carefully  preserved  silk  or 
brocade,  and  then  dressed  and  powdered  their  hair,  usually  worn  in  a 
simple  braid,  but  now  built  up  and  decorated  in  the  fashion  of  the 
day,  and  thus  they  went  to  church,  reminding  the  soldiers  of  Louis 
XVI.  of  thrifty  French  burghers. 

The  houses  were  cold,  so  cold  that  ink  and  wine  froze  often  in  the 
rooms  where  a  generous  wood-fire  blazed  upon  the  hearth.  This  was 
the  only  method  in  general  use  both  for  heating  and  cooking,  and 
around  the  great  kitchen  fireplace  with  its  projecting  crane,  the  whole 
family  were  wont  to  gather  in  the  evening.  The  furniture  was  plain, 
strong,  and  sufficient,  but  rarely  handsome.  Sundials  served  usually  in 
stead  of  clocks,  which  were  scarce  and  dear ;  while  pewter  and  wood 
took  the  place  of  china,  which  was  kept  for  state  occasions,  and  the 
table,  though  plentiful,  was  extremely  simple.  The  people  were  much 
addicted  to  a  vegetable  diet,  and  to  the  consumption  of  Indian  meal 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  451 

in  every  form,  particularly  with  molasses,  which  was  a  staple  article 
in  every  household.  Meat  was  abundant,  except  in  remote  districts, 
where  its  daily  appearance  was  a  mark  of  wealth ;  and  fruits,  both 
wild  and  cultivated,  were  very  plentiful.  Tea  was  extensively  used, 
coffee  rarely,  and  the  ancestral  beer  was  entirely  replaced  by  cider, 
which  was  drunk  everywhere,  and,  if  something  stronger  was  desired, 
New  England  rum  was  always  produced. 

In  the  matter  of  furniture  and  dress  a  curious  trait  of  the  New 
England  character  was  manifested.  Almost  every  respectable  family 
had  more  or  less  handsome  silver,  which  appears  in  the  inventories  at 
tached  to  wills,  and  seems  to  have  been  hoarded  and  kept  out  of  sight, 
together  with  rich  suits  of  velvet,  handsome  arms,  and  costly  stuffs. 
All  these  articles,  indicative  of  prosperity,  seem  to  have  been  prized 
merely  for  the  sense  of  ownership  and  the  love  of  heirlooms,  and 
never  to  have  been  put  to  practical  use  until  their  possessor  turned 
them  over  to  his  descendants,  to  retire  again  into  the  recesses  of  cup 
boards  and  chests.  The -farms  were  in  comparatively  high  cultiva 
tion,  and  presented  a  good  appearance,  and  to  them  the  men  of  the 
family  devoted  their  lives,  while  their  sons  were  generally  content  to 
come  after  them,  although  the  movement  to  new  regions  went  on  with 
steady  increase.  The  women  were  constantly  employed  within-doors ; 
the  girls  were  free,  not  bashful,  but  never  licentious,  and  the  matrons 
virtuous  and  prudish.  They  were  rarely  accomplished,  but  not  in 
frequently  possessed  of  a  heavy  learning  in  Latin  and  Greek,  derived 
from  the  minister,  and  with  a  taste  for  theological  controversy.1 

The  manners  and  customs  of  the  people  in  the  larger  towns  differ 
ed  but  little  from  those  of  the  country.  Almost  all  the  towns,  oth 
er  than  Boston,  of  any  importance,  were  scattered  along  the  coast, 

1  Brissot,  p.  101 ;  Pennsylvania  Hist.  Coll.,  i.,  376,  Hare's  Journey,  1774  ;  Baron 
Riedesel,  i.,  226  ;  Life  of  Robert  Pike,  p.  224 ;  Drake's  Nooks  and  Corners ;  Up- 
ham's  Salem  Witchcraft,  i.,  Introduction ;  Uring's  Voyages,  p.  1 10 ;  Rochefoucauld, 
i.,  427 ;  ii.,  202  ;  Anburey,  ii.,46 — New  Hampshire,  Drake ;  Uring,  p.  113  ;  Wilton 
Centennial,  p.  61 ;  Parker's  Londonderry,  p.  128 ;  Chase,  History  of  Chester,  p.  413 ; 
History  of  Bedford,  p.  133  ;  Bouton,  History  of  Concord,  pp.  520,  521,  524— Con 
necticut,  Abbe  Robin,  pp.  39,  43 ;  Claude  Blanchard,  p.  112;  Journal  of  Mad. 
Knight;  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  536  ;  Chastellux,  pp.  30,41,  48;  Peters's  General  His 
tory,  p.  224 ;  History  of  New  London,  p.  267 ;  Litchfield  County  Centennial,  pp.  44, 
112 ;  History  of  Durham,  pp.  157,  167 ;  History  of  Norwich,  p.  76 ;  Hollister's  His 
tory  of  Connecticut,  i.,  428,  433  —  Rhode  Island,  Claude  Blanchard,  pp.  44,  52, 
78 ;  Burnaby,  p.  126;  Memoirs  of  Count  Fersen,  i.,40,  51 ;  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  496; 
Chastellux,  i.,  19. 


452  HISTORY  OF  THE 

Worcester  and  Hartford,  which  were  the  most  important  of  the  inland 
towns,  being  little  more  than  large  villages.  The  houses  were  chiefly 
of  wood,  and  the  streets  broad  and  shaded  with  handsome  trees ;  more 
trades  were  carried  on  than  in  the  purely  country  districts,  and  the 
immediate  neighborhood  of  both  was  covered  with  farms  in  a  state 
of  comparatively  high  cultivation.  On  the  seaboard,  to  the  north  of 
Boston,  were  Salem  and  Portsmouth,  both  supported  by  trade,  and 
both  well  built,  with  many  houses  of  brick  and  stone ;  and  the  for 
mer  even  threatened  to  become  the  rival  of  Boston.  Portsmouth 
was  the  capital  of  New  Hampshire,  and,  therefore,  the  centre  of  gov 
ernment  and  the  home  of  the  Crown  officials.  To  the  southward 
were  Providence  and  Newport.  The  former  was  a  flourishing  town 
of  some  five  thousand  inhabitants,  and  growing  rapidly ;  but  the  lat 
ter  was  already  in  great  measure  eclipsed,  and  had  sunk  into  a  pret 
ty  quiet  town,  built  almost  entirely  of  wood,  and  already,  from  the 
appearance  of  Southern  planters  in  summer,  giving  promise  of  the 
watering-place  of  the  future.  New  Haven  was  the  chief  town  of 
Connecticut,  an  important  point  of  trade,  and  the  seat  of  learning. 
All  these  towns  were  characterized  by  neatness  of  appearance,  good 
order,  and  prosperity ;  but  the  life  of  their  inhabitants  did  not  vary 
much  from  that  led  by  the  people  of  the  country  villages.  There 
was  more  wealth,  handsomer  dressing,  larger  and  better  houses,  more 
china,  silver,  and  tapestry,  and  an  important  class  of  wealthy  and 
successful  merchants;  but  the  essentials  of  life  and  the  modes  of 
thought  were  the  same  as  in  the  country.  The  general  simplicity  of 
manners  and  distrust  of  innovations,  is,  perhaps,  as  well  illustrated  by 
the  fact  that  the  owner  of  the  first  chaise  in  Norwich  in  the  middle 
of  the  eighteenth  century  was  fined  for  riding  in  it  to  church,  as  by 
anything  else.  Greater  opportunities  for  social  intercourse,  and  a 
closer  connection  with  the  outside  world,  tended  to  liberalize  the  pop 
ulation  of  the  seaports,  but  this  was  the  most  marked  distinction. 
Where  society  in  the  towns  differed  from  that  in  the  country  it  ap 
proached  that  of  Boston,  which  requires  a  separate  description ;  and 
in  a  general  way  it  may  be  said  of  New  England  that,  while  it  was 
made  up  of  towns,  there  were  hardly  any  large  ones.1 

1  Wansey,  p.  62 ;  Pennsylvania  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  i.,  376,  Hare's  Journey ;  E. 
Watson's  Memoirs;  New  England  Hist.  Gen.  Reg.,  xx.,  122— New  Hampshire, 
Burnaby,  p.  150;  New  Hampshire  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  v.,  83;  Rambles  about  Ports 
mouth,  Second  Series,  pp.  76,  90 — Connecticut,  Abb6  Robin,  pp.  39, 66  ;  Brissot,  pp. 
106,  111 ;  Litchfield  County,  p.  44 ;  Caulkins's  History  of  Norwich,  pp.  325,  332— 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  453 

The  general  aspect  of  life,  even  in  the  larger  towns,  was  sober  in  the 
extreme.  There  was  great  precision  required  in  every  way,  and  the 
monotony  of  existence  must  have  been  intense.  The  Puritan  system 
frowned  severely  on  amusements,  for  enjoyment  was  no  part  of  their 
theory  of  earthly  existence.  Against  this  doctrine  human  nature  re 
belled,  even  under  the  strictest  dispensation  of  the  early  times.  Neigh 
bors  would  gather  about  the  great  fireplaces  to  shell  nuts  and  make 
brooms,  or  chat  and  tell  stories,  and  sometimes  simple  games  were 
started,  and,  in  moments  of  great  conviviality,  a  dance.  The  shovel- 
board  of  Shakspeare's  time  was  almost  the  only  game  not  expressly 
prohibited,  and  was  much  in  vogue ;  but  even  this  was  regarded  with 
disfavor,  and  the  minister  of  Salem  was  urged  to  refuse  the  com 
munion  to  Bridget  Bishop,  one  of  the  victims  of  the  later  witchcraft 
delusion,  because  she  kept  her  public-house  open  at  a  late  hour,  and 
permitted  shovel-board  to  be  played  on  her  premises.  This  impos 
sible  system  of  restraint,  however,  gradually  gave  way  before  the  ab 
solute  necessity  of  some  slight  relaxation,  and  certain  amusements 
came  into  fashion,  and  gained  a  firm  foothold.  Besides  the  weekly 
gathering  between  services  on  Sunday,  and  the  monthly  meeting  at 
the  county -town  when  the  court  was  in  session,  there  was  a  great 
deal  of  visiting  done  by  the  women  in  the  country,  who  would  go 
constantly  to  each  other's  houses,  taking  their  children  and  their  work 
with  them,  and  spend  an  hour  or  two  in  cheerful  gossip.  A  more 
marked  occasion  was  the  house-raising,  which  grew  out  of  the  readi 
ness  of  the  people  to  assist  each  other,  and  in  which  every  one  bore 
a  part.  After  the  house  was  up,  there  was  feasting,  dancing,  and 
drinking,  but  very  rarely  intoxication,  although  New  England  rum  was 
the  common  drink.  Besides  this,  there  were  quiltings,  huskings,  and 
spinning-bees,  all  concluding  with  a  simple  supper  and  a  dance.  As 
time  went  on,  sleigh-rides,  picnics,  tea-parties,  supper-parties,  and  dan 
cing-parties  became  common ;  and  on  great  occasions — such  as  the 
ordination  of  a  new  minister — there  was  a  grand  ball,  got  up  by  the 
young  men,  to  which  the  whole  country-side  was  invited.  Holidays 
were  few,  but  were  highly  prized.  Two  were  religious — thanksgiving 
and  fast  day — and  two  civil — election,  and  training  which  occurred 
four  times  yearly.  Fast-day  was  wholly  given  up  to  religious  exer- 


Rhode  Island,  Abbe  Robin,  p.  33;  Claude  Blanchard,  pp.  41,  78,  151;  Burnaby, 
117 ;  E.Watson's  Memoirs ;  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  496 ;  Chastellux,  i.,  19 ;  Channing's 
Early  Recollections  of  Newport,  p.  22 ;  Old  Times  in  Connecticut,  by  Leonard  Ba 
con,  New  Englander,  Jan.,  1882. 


454  HISTORY  OF  THE 

cises ;  but  on  the  others,  after  the  sermon,  the  voting,  or  the  drill, 
all  the  young  men  of  the  neighborhood  gathered  on  the  green,  and 
indulged  in  every  kind  of  athletic  sports,  which  were  very  popular 
in  New  England,  the  favorites  being  running,  wrestling,  boxing,  pitch 
ing  quoits,  and  sometimes  shooting  at  a  mark.  The  day  always  con 
cluded  with  feasting  and  a  dance,  in  which  all  participated.  In  the 
larger  towns  the  amusements  were  of  a  very  similar  character,  supple 
mented  by  hunting,  fishing,  and  riding,  and  by  a  boisterous  celebra 
tion  of  the  fifth  of  November,  which  it  was  found  necessary  to  sup 
press  by  law.  Outside  the  towns  were  often  inns,  with  gardens  and 
bowling-greens,  where  people  resorted  in  fine  weather  to  drink  tea 
or  play  games ;  and  after  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  we 
hear  of  horse-races  and  bull-baitings,  but  these  were  very  exceptional ; 
and  as  late  as  the  year  1762  stage-plays  were  prohibited  by  law  in 
Rhode  Island.  There  were  in  the  towns  more  balls  and  parties  of 
a  very  simple  kind,  and  more  good  eating  and  drinking  than  in  the 
country ;  but  everything  was  plain  and  primitive,  even  among  the 
wealthiest,  and  was  kept  within  very  narrow  bounds  of  decorum.1 

If  it  had  not  been  for  the  town  system,  and  the  social  intercourse 
afforded  by  it,  life  in  New  England,  as  in  the  other  colonies,  would 
have  been  isolated  and  solitary  in  the  extreme.  There  was  no  regular 
connection  with  the  outer  world  except  on  the  seaboard,  and  means  of 
communication  in  the  interior  were  very  limited.  The  postal  service 
for  the  colonies  was  consolidated,  soon  after  the  act  of  union  with 
Scotland,  with  the  chief  offices  at  New  York,  Boston,  and  Philadel 
phia.  The  letters  were  brought  by  ship  captains,  who  were  required, 
under  a  penalty,  to  deliver  them  to  the  deputy  post-master.  A  large 
proportion  of  the  mails,  therefore,  passed  through  the  New  England 
towns,  and  all  the  principal  seaports  were  in  the  line  of  the  post,  which 
ran  regularly  from  Portsmouth  to  Philadelphia,  along  the  seaboard ; 
and  thence,  when  sufficient  letters  were  collected,  at  uncertain  inter 
vals,  to  Williamsburg.  Thus,  news  came  earlier,  oftener,  and  in  greater 

1  Upham's  Salem  Witchcraft,  i. ;  New  England  Hist.  Gen.  Reg.,  xiv.,164;  An- 
burey,  ii.,  87 — New  Hampshire,  Wilton  Centennial,  p.  61  ;  Parker's  Londonderry, 
p.  77  ;  Rambles  about  Portsmouth,  Second  Series,  p.  171 ;  Bouton,  History  of  Con- 
cord,  p.  534  —  Connecticut,  Abbe  Robin,  p.  40;  Peters's  General  History,  p.  221 ; 
History  of  New  London,  pp.  406,  481 ;  Litchfield  County,  p.  85  ;  History  of  Dur 
ham,  pp.  157,  168,  170 ;  Norwalk,  Bouton's  Hist.  Discourse,  p.  39  ;  Caulkins,  His 
tory  of  Norwich,  p.  331 ;  Hollister's  History  of  Connecticut,  i.,  433, 438 — Rhode 
Island,  Claude  Blaiichard,  p.  56 ;  Col.  Records,  vi.,  325. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  455 

abundance  to  New  England,  and  at  more  points,  than  elsewhere,  and 
the  roads  and  bridges  north  and  south  from  Boston  were  exception 
ally  good ;  but  in  the  interior  the  case  was  quite  different.  No  post 
seems  to  have  run  to  the  inland  towns  before  the  Revolution,  and 
the  people  depended  on  chance  visits  to  the  seaports  for  news.  The 
roads,  although  better,  usually,  than  in  the  other  colonies,  were  often 
neglected,  as  in  Rhode  Island,  and  were  of  very  rude  construction  in 
the  outlying  districts.  No  public  conveyances  made  their  appearance 
until  shortly  before  the  Revolution,  and  one  of  the  first  was  a  curricle 
carrying  three  persons,  which  ran  from  Portsmouth  to  Boston  in  two 
days ;  while  the  stages  to  New  York  were  four  days  on  the  way,  even 
after  the  Revolution.  In  the  large  towns,  and  on  the  coast,  coaches 
were  somewhat  used,  while  in  Boston  cabs  had  been  for  some  time  com 
mon  ;  but  chaises  became,  during  the  eighteenth  century,  the  almost 
universal  vehicle.  No  wheeled  carriages,  however,  appeared  in  the  in 
terior  much  before  the  Revolution.  Produce  and  supplies  were  carried 
on  sleds  in  winter,  and  ox-carts  in  summer ;  and  all  journeys,  whether 
for  business  or  pleasure,  to  church  or  to  court,  were  made  on  horseback 
or  on  foot.  Every  one  who  could  afford  it  rode,  and  the  women  and 
little  children  sat  behind  on  the  pillion.  The  roads  were  not  only 
of  fair  quality,  but  the  forest  was  constantly  broken,  not  by  solitary 
plantations,  as  in  the  South,  but  by  thriving  villages  of  considerable 
extent. 

The  inns  of  the  large  towns  were  exactly  like  their  prototypes  in 
the  mother  country,  and  we  find  in  Boston  that  they  had  characteris 
tic  English  names,  such  as  the  "Bunch  of  Grapes," the  "Cromwell 
Head,"  the  "Anchor,"  and  the  "  Cross*  keys."  In  the  country  the 
inns,  which  were  none  of  the  best,  although  better  than  those  in  the 
other  colonies,  were  in  some  ways  peculiar.  The  early  Puritan  policy 
had  been  to  regulate  public-houses  with  great  severity,  and  licenses 
were  issued  only  to  thoroughly  responsible  persons ;  the  result  of 
which  was  that  the  country  innkeeper  was  generally  one  of  the  lead 
ing  men  of  the  neighborhood,  a  colonel  of  militia,  and  a  person  of 
wide  acquaintance  and  much  influence.  They  often  received  travel 
lers  in  their  own  homes,  and  there  was  in  every  village  at  least  one 
house  of  this  sort — half  tavern  and  half  private  dwelling.  The  lodg 
ing  thus  obtained  was  good,  and  the  prices  reasonable;  but  the  fare 
consisted  too  much  of  ill-baked  bread,  had  too  little  variety,  and  the 
wines  were  generally  of  inferior  quality.  The  character  and  position 
of  these  landlords  made  them  excessively  indifferent  to  their  guests, 


456  HISTORY  OF  THE 

whom  they  regarded  frequently  as  a  source  of  trouble  rather  than  of 
profit.  The  mixture  of  privacy  and  publicity,  and  the  eagerness  for 
gain,  produced  another  peculiarity  in  the  custom  of  expecting  to  be 
paid  by  every  stranger,  whether  the  host  kept  an  inn  or  not.  Chas- 
tellux  mentions  several  cases  where  he  brought  letters  of  introduction 
to  his  hosts,  who  received  him  kindly  and  treated  him  well,  and  then 
charged  him  as  if  he  had  been  at  a  tavern,  neither  excessively  nor  very 
moderately,  but  exactly  what  seemed  just  for  the  trouble  and  expense 
to  which  they  had  been  put.  These  customs  gave  a  peculiar  stamp 
to  travelling  in  New  England,  and  explain  also  the  prominence  of  inn 
keepers,  as  a  class,  in  all  public  affairs.  On  the  whole,  however,  trav 
elling  was  easier,  and  communication  more  frequent  in  New  England 
than  in  any  other  part  of  the  British  dominions  in  America.1 

In  this  general  survey  of  New  England  everything  has  been  in 
cluded  except  Boston,  the  seat  of  Puritan  government,  the  capital  of 
Massachusetts,  and  the  chief  city  of  the  eastern  provinces.  At  the 
close  of  the  seventeenth  century  Boston  was  by  far  the  largest,  wealth 
iest,  busiest,  and  most  important  town  in  America.  There  was  the 
seat  of  government  for  Massachusetts,  and  the  centre  of  trade,  learn 
ing,  and  society  for  all  the  New  England  provinces.  Boston  continued 
to  stand  at  the  head  of  the  American  cities  until  after  the  middle  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  when  Philadelphia  caught  up  with  her  in  point 
of  population,  extent,  and  wealth.  At  the  period  of  the  Revolution, 
the  population  of  Boston  was  about  the  same  as  that  of  the  Quaker 
City,  and  was  apparently  in  the  neighborhood  of  twenty-five  thou 
sand.3 


1  Claude  Blanchard,  p.  48 ;  Douglass,  Summary,  p.  457,  full  account  of  Post-of 
fice,  and  p.  471 ;  Brissot,  pp.  97,  98,  384 ;  Wansey,  pp.  38, 41, 42,  52  ;  Pennsylvania 
Hist.  Coll.,  i.,  376,  Hare's  Journey ;  Upham's  Salem  Witchcraft ;  Proc.  Massachu 
setts  Hist.  Soc.,  Hi.,  Bennet's  MS.  History,  p.  109  and  ff. ;  John  Dunton's  Letters ; 
Uring's  Voyages,  p.  1 10— New  Hampshire,  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  iii.,  190 ;  v.,  83  ;  Parker's 
Londonderry,  p.  127 ;  Adams,  Annals  of  Portsmouth,  p.  204 ;  Rambles  about  Ports 
mouth,  Second  Series,  p.  362 ;  Chase,  History  of  Chester,  p.  429 ;  History  of  Rindge, 
p.  358 ;  Bouton,  History  of  Concord,  p.  513 — Connecticut,  Claude  Blanchard,  p.  1 12 ; 
Rochefoucauld,  i.,510;  Chastellux,  i.,  30;  Peters's  General  History,  p.  220;  Hinman, 
Connecticut  Antiquities,  1674,  1693,  p.  193,  Post-offices;  Litchfield  County  Centen 
nial,  p.  35  ;  History  of  Norwich,  p.  100 — Rhode  Island,  Claude  Blanchard,  p.  42. 

8  Small  as  these  numbers  appear  now,  they  were,  as  has  been  said  with  reference 
to  Philadelphia,  very  large  for  the  time.  Boston  was  then  one  of  the  most  con 
siderable  towns  in  the  British  empire,  and  we  find  it  compared  with  Liverpool  and 
Bristol.  The  estimates  of  population  vary,  of  course,  widely  and  wildly,  and  the 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  457 

As  seen  from  the  harbor,  Boston  was  formed  of  an  amphitheatre  of 
houses,  rising  gradually  one  above  the  other  from  the  water's  edge. 
There  were  many  wharves,  built  out  with  much  industry ;  and  conspic 
uous  among  them  was  the  "Long"  wharf,  esteemed  a  prodigious  work 
at  the  time,  which  was  two  thousand  feet  in  length,  and  covered  with 
handsome  warehouses.  From  Long  wharf  ran  King  Street,  then  the 
principal  business  street,  through  the  heart  of  the  town,  and  at  its  head 
was  the  Town-house,  where  the  state  government  in  all  its  branches 
met,  and  beneath  which  the  merchants  held  their  exchange  and  book 
sellers  their  stalls.  The  streets  were  sufficiently  wide,  but  crooked  and 
irregular,  paved  with  cobble  -  stones,  with  gutters  in  the  middle,  and 
sidewalks  marked  off  by  a  line  of  posts  and  chains.  The  streets  were 
clean  and  well  kept,  and  although  they  were  not  lighted  with  any  suf 
ficiency  before  the  year  1773,  were  quiet  and  orderly.  In  the  day 
time  the  streets  and  squares  swarmed  with  the  bustling  life  of  a  driv 
ing,  trading  community ;  and  there  were  many  fine  and  well-stocked 
shops,  as  well  as  two  fairs,  one  at  each  end  of  the  town,  which  were 
held  daily  for  ordinary  traffic.  To  the  south  of  the  town  there  was  a 
small  but  pleasant  common,  where,  even  at  the  end  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  John  Dunton  writes  that  "  gallants  were  wont  to  walk  with 
their  marmalet  madams  as  we  do  in  Moorfield."  Besides  the  Town 
house  there  were  some  very  respectable  public  buildings,  such  as  Fa- 
neuil  Hall,  and  the  Province  House,  where  the  royal  Governor  lived. 
There  were  also  some  twenty  churches,  all  of  which  were  solidly  built, 
and  many  with  handsome  interiors,  in  the  style  of  Queen  Anne's  time. 
The  houses  were  at  first  of  wood,  and  the  consequence  was  the  oc 
currence  of  disastrous  fires,  accompanied  with  considerable  loss  of  life, 
in  1679,  1711,  and  1761.  The  first  produced  sharp  legislation  in  re 
gard  to  building  materials,  and  by  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 

figures  in  the  text  are  simply  the  best  approximates  possible.  See  Abbe  Robin, 
p.  9, 6000  houses  and  30,000  population,  1783 ;  Byrd  MSS.,  i.,  8,  middle  of  eigh 
teenth  century,  8000  houses,  40,000  population ;  Raynal,  i.,  85, 1766,  population 
from  bills  of  mortality,  30,000;  Anderson's  Colonial  Church,  iii.,407, 1723,  popula 
tion  20,000 ;  Burnaby,  pp.  133, 134,  3000  houses,  18,000  to  20,000  population,  1759 ; 
Wansey,  1794,  after  decline  caused  by  war,  p.  39,  population  18,000 ;  Watson,  popu 
lation,  1778,  25,000;  Nason's  Frankland,  1741,  population  16,000,  1500  negroes  ; 
Coll.  Hist.  Soc.  of  Massachusetts,  I.,  iii.,  152,  1742,  population  16,000, 1200  houses, 
1300  negroes;  Uring's  Voyages,  p.  110,  1709,  4000  houses,  18,000  population; 
Drake's  Old  Landmarks  of  Boston,  p.  20 — estimates  of  population  from  1639  to 
Census  of  1870,  Drake  gives  16,000  in  1765.  The  estimate  in  the  text  is,  I 
think,  rather  under  than  over. 


458  HISTORY  OF  THE 

tury  a  large  proportion  of  the  private  houses  were  of  stone  or  brick. 
The  new  ones  at  first  resembled  those  of  London  after  the  great  fire, 
and  continued  to  be  erected  by  wealthy  persons  on  the  outskirts  of  the 
town,  where  they  had  space  for  fine  gardens.  The  old  houses  which 
fire  had  spared  were  heavily  built  of  wood  after  the  country  fashion, 
with  gambrel  roofs  and  gables,  and  balustrades  around  the  top.  The 
general  appearance  of  Boston  was  that  of  an  old  English  country 
town,  while  the  business  streets  strongly  recalled  to  travellers  those 
of  London.1 

For  many  years  the  manners  and  habits  of  society  in  Boston  differed 
in  no  respect  from  those  of  the  country  towns,  which  were  all  founded 
upon  the  same  principles  as  the  capital ;  but  changes  came,  and  con 
siderable  and  inevitable  alterations  were  effected  by  the  growth  of 
trade,  wealth,  and  population.  Elements  wholly  unknown  in  the  sim 
ple  villages  of  the  interior  were  furnished  by  the  officers  of  the  Crown, 
who  were  for  the  most  part  Englishmen,  together  with  the  set  which 
associated  with  them  and  copied  their  manners,  and  by  the  rich  mer 
chants  who,  like  John  Dunton's  friend,  Mr.  White,  of  an  earlier  period, 
"  crossed  both  the  torrid  and  the  frozen  zone  midst  rocks  and  swallow 
ing  gulfs  for  gainful  trade."  The  families  of  the  English  officials  set 
the  fashion,  and  were  implicitly  followed  by  those  who  made  up  so 
ciety  in  the  technical  sense,  although  there  was  a  large  class,  possessing 
both  birth  and  property,  who  adhered  steadily  to  the  sober  habits  of 
their  ancestors.  This  official  society  attended  the  Episcopal  Church, 
and  figured  conspicuously  on  all  public  occasions.  They  introduced 
a  great  deal  of  gayety  into  the  old  town,  and  stood  out  in  bright  re 
lief  against  the  darkly  tinted  background  of  the  Puritan  past,  affect 
ing  more  or  less  even  those  who  clung  to  traditions  and  held  aloof 
from  the  more  modern  ways.  The  change,  however,  came  chiefly  from 
the  fact  that  Boston  became  a  rich  commercial  town,  and  commerce 
brought  in  its  train  liberality  and  luxury. 

The  houses  were  large,  spacious,  and  well  furnished.  Their  owners 
suffered  from  cold,  for  the  only  method  of  heating  was  by  wood-fires, 

1  Abbe  Robin,  pp.  8,  9  ;  Brissot,  pp.  70,  87 ;  Burnaby,  pp.  133, 134  ;  Wansey,  pp. 
38, 39 ;  Long  Island  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  L,  Journal  of  the  Labadists  ;  Memoirs  of  E. 
Watson ;  Nason's  Life  of  Frankland ;  Proc.  Massachusetts  Hist.  Soc.,  iii.,  Bennet's 
MS.  History,  p.  109  and  ff. ;  Ibid.,  vi.,  322  ;  New  England  Gen.  Hist.  Reg.,  xvi.,  Laws 
on  Building;  xxiv.,  Goellet's  Diary;  Coll.  Massachusetts  Hist.  Soc.,  V.,  v.,  vi.,  Sew- 
all's  Diary ;  John  Dunton's  Letters,  p.  66  ;  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  406 ;  Uring's  Voy 
ages,  p.  110 ;  Massachusetts  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  I.,  iv.,  188 ;  I.,  ii.,  81 ;  III.,  iii.,  319. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  459 

and  these  were  insufficient  for  the  climate.  "  Tis  dreadful  cold," 
writes  Cotton  Mather,  in  the  year  1720,  with  his  wonted  simplicity  of 
expression ;  "  my  ink-glass  in  my  standish  is  froze  and  splitt  in  my 
very  stove.  My  ink  in  my  very  pen  suffers  a  congelation."  This 
probably  continued  to  be  the  case  down  to  the  Revolution ;  but  in 
all  other  respects  the  well-to-do  people  of  Boston  had  every  comfort 
that  money  could  purchase.  In  every  house  there  was  abundance  of 
handsome  furniture,  and  a  good  deal  of  decoration.  Many  had  large 
estates  in  the  country,  whither  they  went  in  summer ;  and  there  was 
a  strong  tendency,  especially  among  the  merchants,  toward  the  life  of 
a  country  gentleman.  Every  family  of  position  had  stores  of  silver, 
glass,  china,  and  tapestry.  The  markets  were  well  stocked,  food  cheap, 
and  the  tables  were  well  supplied  and  well  served ;  while  good  wines, 
especially  those  of  Spain  and  Madeira,  were  found  in  every  cellar,  and 
were  freely  used.  There  was  a  great  deal  of  handsome  and  even  ex 
travagant  dressing.  Men  wore  broadcloth  and  velvet,  lace  ruffles,  silk 
stockings,  and  diamond  shoe-buckles,  powdered  their  hair,  and  carried 
swords.  The  women,  who  were  pale  and  faded  early,  but  were  also 
well  made  and  handsome  in  youth,  dressed  even  more  richly  and  ex 
travagantly,  in  silks  and  brocades,  with  high  head-dresses  and  ostrich 
feathers,  although  it  must  be  confessed  that  such  good  judges  as  the 
Prince  de  Broglie  thought  their  magnificence  of  a  very  tasteless  sort. 
Ladies  rarely  went  abroad  except  in  a  chaise  accompanied  by  a  negro 
servant ;  while  the  gentlemen  generally  rode,  and  they,  too,  always  had 
a  black  in  attendance.  The  first  coaches  were  those  of  the  Govern 
ors,  who,  early  in  the  eighteenth  century,  drove  in  them  with  six  horses 
richly  harnessed ;  but  at  the  period  of  the  Revolution  coaches  and 
four  were  also  used  by  the  wealthiest  among  the  private  citizens. 
The  mass  of  the  inhabitants  lived  more  soberly  and  dressed  more  qui 
etly,  and  mechanics  wore  the  dress  of  their  trade  ;  but  the  general  ef 
fect  was  one  of  wealth  and  good  living.  The  people  of  Boston  were 
kindly  and  hospitable,  with  more  readiness  to  receive  strangers,  who 
found  the  town  and  its  inhabitants  very  agreeable,  than  was  common 
in  the  smaller  towns.  They  knew  more  of  the  world,  and  had  more 
of  its  habits  than  their  brethren  in  the  country;  but  they  could  not 
shake  off  their  inheritances,  and  underneath  the  exterior  which  wealth 
and  foreign  commerce  gave  they  were  the  same  race,  and  the  pecu 
liarities  cropped  out  with  unfailing  certainty.  They  were  sharp  in 
trade  and  quick  at  bargains.  The  men  were  stiff  and  formal,  the 
women  cold  and  reserved.  Riches,  official  society,  and  intercourse 


460  HISTORY  OF  THE 

with  the  world  softened  them  and  modified  their  character ;  but  at  bot 
tom  they  were  the  true  descendants  of  the  Puritans,  stern,  hard,  strong, 
and  acute ;  and  a  plain  simplicity  of  thought  and  life  was  remarked 
beneath  the  surface  by  every  careful  observer.1 

Amusements  in  Boston,  after  the  Puritan  austerity  disappeared, 
were  of  course  more  varied  and  less  simple  than  in  the  country.  Be 
sides  the  universal  athletic  sports,  and  riding,  hunting,  fishing,  shoot 
ing,  and  skating,  there  were  sleigh-rides  in  winter  to  some  neighboring 
tavern,  followed  by  a  supper  and  dance,  and,  in  summer,  excursions 
down  the  harbor,  picnics  on  the  islands,  and  little  parties  into  the 
country  to  drink  tea  and  drive  home  by  moonlight.  Theatres  were 
strongly  resisted,  and  do  not  seem  to  have  been  fairly  established  and 
accepted  until  after  the  Revolution.  In  the  year  1767  Andrew  Eliot 
writes  to  Hollis :  "  I  am  no  enemy  of  innocent  amusements,  but  I  have 
long  thought  our  modern  theatre  the  bane  of  virtue.  I  had  such  an 
opinion  of  their  pernicious  tendency,  especially  in  a  young  country, 
that  I  had  exerted  myself  to  procure  an  act  to  prohibit  them  when 
introduced  some  years  ago.  This  does  not  wholly  prevent  them,  but 
so  many  are  engaged  to  prevent  them  that  they  will  not  soon  be  tol 
erated."  This  was  probably  a  fair  expression  of  Boston  opinion  at 
the  time,  but  the  ultimate  result  was  very  different  from  that  antici 
pated  by  the  letter-writer.  There  were  no  coffee-houses  except  the 
one  at  the  Merchants'  Exchange,  but  there  were  numerous  clubs, 
which  met  at  private  houses  or  at  taverns,  and  which  were  well  at 
tended  and  much  enjoyed.  On  a  coronation  or  royal  birthday  >  or  on 
great  public  occasions — such  as  the  taking  of  Louisburg — there  were 
extensive  celebrations ;  the  town  was  illuminated,  bonfires  were  light 
ed,  and  the  streets  were  filled  with  people. 

Entertainment  of  a  quieter  and  more  every-day  kind  was  found  by 
ladies  and  gentlemen  in  walking  in  the  mall  every  fine  afternoon,  and 
then  going  to  each  other's  houses  to  pass  the  evening,  unless  they  went 
to  lecture,  which  was  possible  on  six  nights  out  of  seven.  These  were 
narrow  limits,  for  not  only  were  plays  and  music-houses  discounte 
nanced,  but  dancing-parties  and  balls  were  by  no  means  encouraged. 

1  Abbe  Robin,  p.  14  ;  Brissot,  pp.  70,  73,  80 ;  Nason's  Life  of  Frankland :  Proc. 
Massachusetts  Hist.  Soc.,  in.,  Bennet's  MS.  History,  p.  109  and  ff. ;  New  England 
Gen.  Hist.  Reg.,  II.,  vi.,  Wills ;  Mag.  Amer.  History,  Prince  de  Broglie,  p.  379 ; 
John  Dunton's  Letters ;  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  406 ;  ii.,  176,  214 ;  Anburey,  H.,  61,  62 ; 
Uring's  Voyages,  p.  110;  Coll.  Massachusetts  Hist.  Soc.,  IV.,  vii.,  Mather  Papers  ,• 
V.,  v.,  vi.,  Sewall's  Diary,  and,  e.  g.,  ii.,  69. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  461 

"Of  late," says  one  writer,  in  the  year  1*740,  "  they  have  set  up  an  as 
sembly,  to  which  some  of  the  ladies  resort.  But  they  are  looked  upon 
to  be  none  the  nicest  in  regard  to  their  reputation,  and  it  is  thought 
it  will  soon  be  suppressed,  for  it  is  much  taken  notice  of  and  exploded 
by  the  religious  and  sober  part  of  the  people."  Yet  they  did  not 
seem  dispirited  or  moping  for  lack  of  amusement;  and  the  same 
writer  says  elsewhere :  u  The  ladies  here  visit,  drink  tea,  and  indulge 
in  every  little  piece  of  gentility  to  the  height  of  the  mode,  and  neglect 
the  affairs  of  their  family  with  as  good  a  grace  as  the  finest  ladies  in 
London."  The  old  system,  in  fact,  was  giving  way  before  the  pres 
ence  of  an  energetic  and  pleasure-loving  social  element,  and  balls  and 
parties  soon  became  an  unquestioned  part  of  social  life.  After  the 
troops  were  quartered  in  Boston,  an  attempt  was  even  made  to  infringe 
upon  the  Sabbath.  "  We  have  had  an  innovation  here  never  known 
before,"  writes  a  worthy  citizen,  in  the  year  1773.  "  A  drum  or  rout 
given  by  the  admiral  last  Saturday  evening,  which  did  not  break  up 
till  two  or  three  o'clock  on  Sunday  morning,  their  chief  amusement 
being  playing  cards."  This  innovation  was  a  step  too  far,  and  disap 
peared  with  the  English  soldiers ;  but,  nevertheless,  at  the  time  of  the 
Revolution,  the  old  abhorrence  of  amusements  was  nearly  gone,  and  so 
cial  life  in  Boston  was  by  no  means  sombre  or  depressing ;  so  that 
those  who  found  time  in  the  midst  of  an  active  life  for  relaxation  had 
no  lack  of  opportunities.1 

In  social  habits  nothing  now  remains  to  be  described  but  the  two 
important,  although  very  common,  incidents  of  marriage  and  death, 
and  the  observances  connected  with  them,  which  were  substantially  the 
same  in  town  and  country  throughout  New  England.  On  every  in 
stitution,  public  and  private,  the  Puritan  laid  his  hand,  and  dealt  with 
each  after  his  own  fashion.  They  determined  that  marriage  was  sim 
ply  a  civil  contract ;  hardly  any  weddings  were  solemnized  by  ministers 
before  the  eighteenth  century,  and  clergymen  were  even  obliged  to 
get  a  special  commission  in  order  to  officiate.  "  We  do  not  wish  to  in 
troduce  here,"  said  John  Winthrop, "  the  English  custom  of  solemnities 
at  a  marriage.  If  any  minister  is  present,  he  might  bestow  an  ex 
hortation  ;  but  we  adhere  to  the  strict  Protestant  principle  that  mar 
riage  is  purely  a  civil  right."  To  this  doctrine  there  was  rigid  adher- 

1  Brissot,  p.  80 ;  Wansey,  p.  42 ;  Nason's  Life  of  Frankland ;  Proc.  Massachu 
setts  Hist.  Soc.,  iii.,  Bennet,  p.  109  and  ff.,1740;  Ibid.,  vi.,  322;  John  Dunton's 
Letters  ;  Coll.  Massachusetts  Hist.  Soc.,  I,  i.,  49 ;  IV.,  iv.,  Eliot  to  Hollis. 


462  HISTORY  OF  THE 

ence  for  nearly  a  century.  Weddings  were  usually  celebrated  very 
quietly  at  the  home  of  the  bride,  in  the  presence  of  a  few  friends, 
and  by  a  justice  of  the  peace ;  but  the  extreme  simplicity  thus  en 
forced  led  gradually  to  the  overthrow  of  the  system.  The  religious 
theory  of  marriage  never  reached  great  importance,  but  the  severe  ab 
stinence  from  any  form  of  celebration  gave  way  entirely.  Marriages 
took  place  usually  at  a  very  early  period  of  life,  many  girls  becom 
ing  wives  at  sixteen  or  seventeen.  John  Dunton  speaks  of  a  Miss 
Wilkins,  an  old  maid  of  twenty-six,  looked  on  in  Boston  as  "  a  dis 
mal  spectacle ;"  and  John  Higginson  writes  of  some  young  ladies 
that  they  "  are  like  to  continue  ancient  maids,  Sarah  being  twenty- 
five  or  twenty-six  years  old."  This  was  at  the  close  of  the  seven 
teenth  century;  but  the  custom  not  only  of  young,  but  of  repeat 
ed  marriages,  continued  down  to  the  Revolution ;  and  as  these  mar 
riages  were  very  fruitful,  families  were  large,  and  thus  the  population 
was  supplied  which  overflowed  New  England,  and  pushed  out  to  the 
fertile  lands  of  the  north  and  west.  Marriage  wrought  a  marked 
change  in  the  position  of  a  woman.  Young  girls  were  allowed  an 
amount  of  liberty  which  would  now  be  inconceivable  if  remnants  of 
it  did  not  still  survive ;  but  when  they  married  all  freedom  was  at  an 
end.  The  wives  and  mothers  were  not  only  very  domestic,  but  ex 
tremely  prudish ;  anything  but  the  simplest  dress  was  looked  upon 
with  marked  disfavor,  and  intrigue,  gallantry,  or  adultery  were  so  rare 
as  to  be  almost  unknown.  As  has  just  been  said,  the  extreme  privacy 
and  quiet  of  the  early  marriages  wholly  disappeared.  At  first  feast 
ing  was  added  to  singing  psalms  and  prayer,  and  then  weddings  be 
came  occasions  for  much  social  festivity.  All  the  friends  were  enter 
tained  at  the  bride's  home  with  a  collation  or  supper,  and  afterward 
a  dance;  while  in  the  country  they  were  the  most  important  social 
events.  The  banns  were  proclaimed  in  church,  and  all  the  neighbors 
were  invited  from  the  pulpit  to  attend  the  ceremony.  On  the  day 
of  the  wedding  muskets  were  fired,  a  procession  was  formed,  and 
marched  to  the  bride's  house,  where  the  marriage  took  place ;  and 
then  came  a  dinner,  a  dance,  and  great  merry-making.  Usually  these 
wedding-feasts  lasted  through  the  day  and  evening,  but  they  were 
sometimes  kept  up  for  two  or  three  days.  On  one  occasion  at  New 
London  there  was  a  great  wedding  dance  on  the  day  after  the  mar 
riage,  when  ninety -two  ladies  and  gentlemen  assembled  and  proceeded 
to  dance  ninety-two  jigs,  fifty-two  contra-dances,  forty-five  minuets, 
and  seventeen  hornpipes.  This  was  probably  an  extreme  case ;  but  all 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  463 

over  New  England  weddings  were  great  occasions,  and  were  celebrated 
with  much  pomp  and  rejoicing.1 

With  the  same  unsparing  hand  the  early  Puritans  strove  to  cut 
down  to  the  last  point  the  final  offices  of  respect  to  the  dead,  and  the 
first  settlers  carried  their  dead  from  the  house  on  their  shoulders  after 
a  brief  prayer,  and  silently  laid  them  in  the  earth.  But  death  was 
too  grand  a  theme  for  moralizing  to  be  passed  over  so  simply.  The 
Puritans  became  dissatisfied  with  their  own  experiment  on  this  point, 
and  long  before  the  seventeenth  century  closed  funerals  had  become 
important  and  observed  occasions.  The  religious  rites  continued  to 
be  very  simple ;  but  great  state  and  pomp  were  introduced  into  the 
last  obsequies.  At  the  funeral  of  Governor  Leverett  the  hearse  came 
first,  with  four  gentlemen  carrying  banner  rolls,  then  four  more  carry 
ing  the  armor  and  sword  of  the  dead  man,  then  two  leading  the  horse, 
and  again  four  with  banners,  and  finally  a  long  train  of  citizens.  In 
a  less  degree  this  came  to  be  the  practice  at  every  funeral.  There 
were  always  pall-bearers  from  among  the  leading  men  of  the  commu 
nity,  a  long  procession  to  the  grave,  great  distribution  of  scarfs,  gloves, 
and  rings,  and,  to  close  the  day,  baked  meats  and  drinking.  A  list  of 
charges  at  a  private  funeral  in  Boston  in  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth 
century  includes  twelve  pounds  for  scarfs  and  gloves,  nine  pounds  for 
a  barrel  of  wine,  and  three  shillings  for  tobacco.  At  the  funeral  of 
Governor  Belcher's  wife  one  thousand  scarfs  and  pairs  of  gloves  were 
given  away,  and  it  was  even  customary  for  the  towns  to  supply  scarfs 
and  gloves  on  the  burial  of  a  pauper.  The  fashion  of  expensive  funer 
als  was  carried  to  such  extremes,  and  the  extravagance  was  so  great, 
especially  in  Massachusetts,  that  it  was  found  necessary  in  that  prov 
ince  to  regulate  these  ceremonies  by  law,  in  order  to  make  them  less 
costly.  In  the  country-  the  system  was  substantially  the  same.  If  a 
death  occurred  in  the  night  the  bell  was  tolled  at  sunrise ;  if  in  the 
daytime,  at  sunset,  once  for  a  child,  twice  for  a  woman,  thrice  for  a 
man.  The  funeral  was  somewhat  simpler  than  in  the  capital,  but  its 

1  Brissot,  p.  72;  Proc.  Massachusetts  Hist.  Soc.,  ii.,  283 ;  Ibid.,  iii.,  Bennet,  p. 
109  and  ff. ;  Proc.  Massachusetts  Hist.  Soc.,  vi.,  322  ;  New  England  Hist.  Gen.  Reg., 
vi. ;  xi.,  253 ;  xx.,  122 ;  John  Dunton's  Letters;  Anburey,  ii., 88 ;  Massachusetts  Hist. 
Soc.  Coll.,  III.,  vii.,  199 ;  V.,  vi.,  24— New  Hampshire,  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  iii.,  190;  Par- 
keif's  Londonderry,  p.  74 — Connecticut,  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  536  ;  Chastellux,  i.,  79 ; 
History  of  New  London,  pp.  194,  406 ;  History  of  Norwich,  Caulkins,  pp.  177, 332 ; 
History  of  Meriden  and  Wallingford,  p.  408 ;  Hollister's  History  of  Connecticut,  i., 
438— Rhode  Island,  Westerly  and  its  Witnesses,  p.  142. 


464  HISTORY  OF  THE 

main  features  were  the  same.  All  work  was  suspended,  and  every  one 
in  the  village  gathered  at  the  house  of  mourning,  whence  the  coffin 
was  borne  to  the  grave  on  men's  shoulders,  followed  by  a  long  pro 
cession.  When  the  burial  was  over  all  returned  to  the  house,  and 
feasting  and  drinking  ensued.  This  celebration  of  funerals  was,  as 
has  been  seen,  common  to  all  the  northern  and  middle  colonies,  and 
was  carried  to  strange  extremes,  borrowed  originally  from  English 
customs.1 

In  many  respects,  for  one  reason  or  another,  New  England  differed, 
sometimes  for  better  and  sometimes  for  worse,  from  the  other  colonies, 
often  very  slightly,  and  then  again  very  widely ;  but  there  was  one 
point  on  which  the  dissimilarity  was  more  marked  than  on  any  other. 
This  was  education.  The  Puritan  theory  of  a  direct  personal  com 
munion  between  each  human  being  and  his  Maker,  and  the  consequent 
interest  in  divine  precepts,  made  the  Bible  and  the  capacity  to  read 
it  an-^sseiLtiaL_paTt_of  their  system  of  society.  The  tradition  of  a 
time  when  the  Bible  was  chained  up  in  churches,  when  it  was  the 
privilege  of  the  priesthood  and  denied  to  the  people,  was  still  fresh  in 
their  thoughts.  Ignorance,  slavery,  and  papacy  were  to  their  minds 
inseparable,  and  to  unbar  the  gates  of  knowledge  and  keep  them  open 
for  all  and  each  was  one  of  their  chief  political  and  religious  doctrines. 
With  strong,  unflinching  narrowness  they_  strove  to  regulate  every  detail 
of  human  life,  with  rigid  intolerance  they  persisted  in  attempts  to  bind 
opinions  and  check  their  utterance  unless  they  accorded  with  certain 
well-defined  principles ;  yet,  even  while  they  did  this,  they  made  it  one 
of  their  cardinal  doctrines  to  strike  off  the  shackles  from  the  mind, 
and  put  knowledge  within  the  reach  of  every  one.  The  two  policies 
thus  inevitably  united  were,  of  course,  hopelessly  inconsistent.  The 
Puritans  held  down  liberty  of  thought  and  action  with  one  hand,  and 
raised  up  intellectual  freedom  with  the  other.  From  their  race,  and 
from  the  conditions  of  their  development,  they  could  not  do  otherwise, 
and  this  contradictory  policy  could  have  but  one  result.  They_freed 
the  human  mind,  and  then  tried  to  limit  it  in  a  new  fashion.  The 
effort  was  vain.  The  liberated  intelligence  broke  the  bonds  of  Calvin 
as  it  had  those  of  Rome ;  and  the  spirit  of  inquiry  proved  as  fatal  to 

1  New  England  Hist.  Gen.  Reg.,  viii.,  212  •  Coll.  Massachusetts  Hist.  Soc.,  II.,  viii., 
44;  Ibid.,V.,v.,  vi.,  SewalPs  Diary  generally — New  Hampshire,  Parker's  London 
derry,  p.  76 ;  Rambles  about  Portsmouth,  Second  Series,  p.  334 ;  Bouton,  History  of 
Concord,  p.  512 — Connecticut,  History  of  New  London,  p.  267 ;  History  of  Meriden, 
and  Wallingford,  p.  380  ;  Hollister's  History  of  Connecticut,  i.,  438. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  465 

the  peculiar  political  and  social  system  of  the  Puritans  as  it  had  to 
the  tyranny  of  the  Popish  hierarchy.  On  one  side  the  Puritan  was 
the  dark,  unrelenting,  religious  enthusiast,  fierce  of  spirit  and  gloomy 
m^  creed ;  on  the  other,  he  was  the  champion  of  education,  and  ren 
dered  unequalled  services  to  the  enlightenment  of  the  human  race. 

Thus  it  was  that  one  of  the  earliesLacts  jof  the  settlers  of  New  Eng 
land  was  to  found  a  system  of  public  schools.  A  certain  number  of 
families  were  required  by  law  to  maintain  a  grammar-school,  and  free 
Latin  schools  were  sometimes  established  in  county  towns  by  general 
law,  and  sometimes  in  the  principal  city  by  special  act,  as  at  Ports 
mouth  and  Boston.  In  many  cases  in  Massachusetts  the  towns  and 
the  schools  were  founded  apparently  almost  together,  and  date  back 
to  the  early  years  of  the  Puritan  immigration.  By  the  jejir_164JLed- 
ucation  was  compulsory  everywhere  in  New  England  excepjbjn  Rhode 
Island.  Throughout  New  England  the  school-house  followed  hard 
upon  the  church  and  block-house,  which  were  the  first  buildings  erect 
ed  when  a  new  community  was  organized.  At  first,  of  course,  teach 
ers  were  not  plentiful,  and  there  was  home  instruction,  the  children 
of  every  family  being  taught  the  rudiments  by  their  parents  until 
they  were  able  to  go  to  the  nearest  grammar-school ;  and  this  con 
tinued  to  be  the  case  in  New  Hampshire  and  in  outlying  districts 
down  to  the  time  of  the  Revolution.  The  hoineijistrjiction  of  the 
first  settlers  was  followed  by  dames'  schools,  itinerant  teachers,  and 
sometimes  by  seJtJe^jn^slejcs  wjb^  The  in 

struction  in  these  schools  was  of  course  very  simple  and  rudimentary, 
but  it  served  as  a  beginning,  and  growing  steadily  developed  into  a 
universal  system  of  public  common  schools.  These  were  supple 
mented  by  Latin  schools;  and  where  the  latter  were  not  established 
boys  were  fitted  for  college  by  private  instruction  from  the  clergyman 
of  the  parish.  The  result  was  that  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution 
everybody  could  read  from  one  end  of  New  England  to  the  other, 
and  illiteracy,  except  on  the  wild  frontiers  of  Maine,  was  almost 
wholly  unknown.  The  children  of  the  very  poorest  parents  had  all 
some  education,  so  that  they  cannot  be  compared  with  the  ignorant 
classes  of  Europe,  and  those  of  more  prosperous  families  were  as  well 
educated  as  in  England.  The  boys  when  they  left  school  were  sent 
to  college,  the  girls  were  taught  fine  work,  music,  and  dancing.  There 
was  no  need  to  send  children  abroad  for  an  education,  as  was  so  much 
the  practice  in  the  southern  provinces,  and  it  was  very  rarely  done. 

More  remarkable  even  than  the  foundation  of  the  public  school  sys- 

30 


466  HISTORY  OF  THE 

tern  was  the  establishment  of  a  college  for  the  cultivation  of  the 
highest  learning  by  the  general  court  of  Massachusetts,  within  seven 
years  from  the  time  when  Endicott  and  his  followers  landed  at  Salem. 
There  is  no  need  to  trace  the  history  of  Harvard  College,  thus  found 
ed  to  train  up  *'  learned  and  godly  ministers,"  for  it  is  part  of  the 
history  of  the  colony  itself.  It  was  sustained  and  carried  through 
many  long  years  of  discouragement  by  the  energy  of  a  powerful 
clergy,  and  the  support  of  an  intelligent  and  far-sighted  people.  The 
learning  of  the  New  England  clergy  was  very  great,  and  so  was  that 
of  the  college  they  administered.  At  the  period  of  the  Revolution 
the  college  probably  afforded  in  theology,  philosophy,  and  the  classics 
as  good  an  education  as  could  be  obtained  in  Europe,  for  the  professors 
were  men  of  character  and  learning,  and  some  of  them  eminent.  The 
college  had  some  goodly  brick  buildings,  a  library  of  five  thousand 
volumes,  and  good  sets  of  astronomical  and  philosophical  apparatus. 
The  education  of  the  common  schools  and  the  higher  education  went 
hand  in  hand  in  Massachusetts,  and  by  the  grants  of  the  legislature, 
by  the  gifts  of  towns,  and  by  the  legacies  of  individuals,  can  be  seen 
the  deep  and  wide-spread  popular  interest  felt  in  these  subjects. 

In  Connecticut,  Yale  College  was  founded  at  the  very  beginning  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  and  entered  on  a  career  of  usefulness  and  suc 
cess  which  fell  little  short  of  that  of  the  older  university.  At  a  later 
period  Dartmouth  College  was  founded  in  New  Hampshire,  and  well 
managed ;  and,  still  later,  Brown  College  in  Rhode  Island.  In  this 
last  colony  education  was  not  so  good  as  in  the  other  New  England 
provinces.  There  were,  of  course,  public  schools,  but  of  less  high 
quality,  and  for  the  best  and  final  education  the  children  of  those  who 
could  afford  it  were  usually  sent  to  Massachusetts  or  Connecticut. 
The  striking  fact  about  New  England  education  was  the  high  aver 
age.  Every  one  could  read,  write,  and  cipher,  and  ignorance  was 
even  more  uncommon  than  pauperism.1 

1  Abbe  Robin,  p.  24 ;  Upham's  Salem  Witchcraft,  i. ;  Proc.  Massachusetts  Hist. 
Soc.,  in.,  Bennet's  MS.  Hist.,  p.  109  and  if. ;  New  England  Hist.  Gen.  Reg.,  vi.,  School 
in  Ipswich ;  Rochefoucauld,  ii.,  214 ;  Tyler's  American  Literature,  i.,  98  ;  Coll.  Mas 
sachusetts  Hist.  Soc.,  II.,  iv.,  Schools  in  Plymouth  —  New  Hampshire,  Rochefou 
cauld,  ii.,  196 ;  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  i.,  157;  iv.,  15 ;  Prov.  Papers,  iii.,  364;  History  of 
Rindge,  p.  273 — Connecticut,  Abb6  Robin,  p.  41 ;  Wansey,  p.  67 ;  Rochefoucauld, 
i.,  527;  Barber's  Hist.  Coll.,  p.  146;  History  of  Glastenbury,  p.  110;  History  of 
New  London,  p.  395  ;  Litchfield  County  Centennial,  p.  48  ;  History  of  Norwich,  p. 
92 — Rhode  Island,  Claude  Blanchard,  p.  43  ;  Rochefoucauld,  i.,496,  504;  Cahoon, 
Sketches  of  Newport,  pp.  43,  56 ;  Col.  Records,  vi.,  385. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  467 

Where  education  both  in  school  and  college  was  so  general  and 
wide-spread,  the  atmosphere  was  much  more  favorable  to  literature 
and  other  purely  intellectual  pursuits  than  in  the  other  colonies.  The 
Puritan  leaders  and  the  Puritan  clergy  brought  with  them  a  strong 
love  of  letters,  and  even  in  the  very  infancy  of  the  colony,  in  the 
midst  of  the  hard  struggle  for  existence  in  the  wilderness,  they  did 
not  neglect  them.  Through  the  dark  period  of  settlement  and  iso 
lation  the  Puritan  clergy  carried  the  light  of  literature  undimmed. 
They  sedulously  maintained  their  connection  with  their  brethren  in 
England,  and  the  chain  of  thought  was  never  broken,  nor  was  the  at 
tachment  to  the  learning  and  scholarship  of  the  Old  World  ever  less 
ened.  In  this  way  there  grew  up  in  New  England  a  native  literature, 
strengthened  by  its  connection  with  Europe,  but  bearing  the  deep  im 
pression  of  the  peculiarities  and  characteristics  of  the  people,  among 
whom  it  had  developed.  The  proportion of  leamed-men,  including 
the  clergy,  among  the  early  settlers  was  very  large.  It  has  been  com 
puted  that  there  was  one  Cambridge  graduate  to  every  two  hundred 
and  fifty  immigrants;  and  the  result  of  this  and  of  the  maintenance 
of  learning  in  the  provinces  was  a  great  literary  activity  in  the  seven 
teenth  century,  which  was  continued,  with  some  abatement  and  slight 
changes,  through  the  eighteenth  down  to  the  Revolutionary  epoch. 
-As  the  chief  purely  intellectual  interest  was  religion,  so  the  principal 
part  of  New  England  literature  was  polemical  divinity ;  but  there  was 
also  a  literature  of  politics,  meraoirsj  poetry,  and  history,  all  deeply 
tinged  with  religious  thought,  a  quality  which  gradually  fades  away 
as  the  eighteenth  century  advances. 

The  political  and  religious  beliefs  which  led  to  the  Puritan  im 
migration  impressed  the  participants  in  that  movement  with  a  deep 
sense  of  the  vastness  of  their  undertaking,  and  the  importance  of 
preserving  personal  records  of  events.  This  feeling  gave  us  the  di 
ary  of  Bradford,  of  Plymouth ;  the  diary  of  Governor  Winthrop,  the 
most  interesting  of  all,  and  of  considerable  literary  merit ;  the  jour 
nal  of  Francis  Higginson ;  and  a  number  of  others  of  less  importance. 
Then  comes  a  second  period  of  native  diarists,  among  whom  Samuel 
Sewall  is  conspicuous,  covering  the  close  of  the  colonial  and  the  first 
thirty  years  of  the  provincial  period.  In  all  these  diaries  the  marked 
quality  is  the  introspection  and  constant  religious  and  moral  question 
ings  of  the  writers,  accompanied  by  a  minute  record  of  public  and  pri 
vate  events,  with  appropriate  reflections  exhibiting  a  great  deal  of  pen 
etration  and  shrewd  observation.  These  memoirs  reflect  the  thought, 


468  HISTORY  OF  THE 

and  are  literary  examples  of  the  period  in  which  they  were  composed, 
but  their  publication  was  left,  of  course,  to  a  late  posterity. 

Social  and  political  tracts  made  their  appearance  in  the  earliest  days 
of  the  settlement,  and  continued  to  be  published  by  both  laymen  and 
ministers  until  the  period  of  the  Revolution.  The  clergy  predomi 
nated  among  the  writers  at  first  very  largely,  but  early  in  the  seven 
teenth  century  they  began  to  lose  their  leadership.  Sewall,  among 
others,  published  an  able  attack  on  slavery;  and  Jeremiah  Bummer's 
Defence  of  the  Charters  was,  perhaps,  the  most  powerful  of  the  New 
England  political  tracts.  At  the  beginning  of  the  troubles  with  Eng 
land  the  change  had  gone  still  farther,  and  political  writing  passed 
into  the  hands  of  the  laity,  and  particularly  of  the  lawyers.  In  the 
early  days,  also,  there  was  a  good  deal  of  verse  written,  chiefly  by 
clergymen ;  but  the  best  and  most  conspicuous  of  the  verse  writers 
was  Anne  Bradstreet,  the  daughter  of  the  elder  Dudley.  She  was 
a  follower  of  Quarles  and  Withers,  and  the  euphuists — a  pernicious 
style  very  popular  in  New  England ;  but  some  of  her  shorter  and 
simpler  poems  are  not  without  merit.  The  literary  development  of 
New-  England  can,  however,  be  best  traced  in  the  writings  of  the 
clergy,  who  were  the  great  repositories  of  learning,  and  the  real  ex 
ponents  of  New  England  literature.  The  line  of  clerical  writers  is 
a  long  and  famous  one,  and  their  activity  extended  into  every  field. 
Besides  an  unbroken  and  immense  series  of  published  sermons,  they 
produced  many  more  extensive  and  ambitious  works  in  theology,  doc 
trinal  controversy,  history,  politics,  and  poetry,  of  which  even  the  most 
purely  secular  were  strongly  tinged  with  the  religious  feeling.  De 
scriptions  of  the  country  were  among  the  earliest  writings ;  but  the 
most  successful  of  these  first  efforts  was  the  fierce  satire  of  Nathaniel 
Ward,  the  "  simple  cobbler  of  Agawam,"  brimming  over  with  attacks 
upon  manners  in  New  and  Old  England,  and  full  of  bitter  intolerance 
and  invective  against  such  matters  as  long  hair  and  woman's  dress. 
All  the  clergy  had  a  great  fancy  for  versifying.  The  fearful  verse 
of  the  Bay  Psalm-book  was  the  work  of  eminent  ministers  like  Weld, 
Eliot,  and  the  first  Mather.  Cotton  and  Wilson,  the  first  ministers  of 
the  Boston  church,  both  indulged  in  bad  verse ;  John  Norton  and  John 
Rogers  were  followers  of  Anne  Bradstreet ;  and  Urian  Oakes,  the  Pres 
ident  of  Harvard  College,  attempted  an  elegy  on  Shepard.  In  all 
alike  there  is  a  dire  struggle  for  the  expression  of  genuine  feeling  in 
harsh  and  stilted  lines.  The  most  prolific  poet  was  of  a  later  time, 
Michael  Wigglesworth,  who  embodied  in  interminable  verses  the  dog- 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  469 

mas  of  Calvinism.  His  masterpiece  was  the  "  Day  of  Doom,"  redo 
lent  with  the  fire  and  smoke  of  the  Calvinistic  hell.  The  elaborate 
account  of  the  fate  of  the  wicked  concludes  as  follows : 

"  Die  fain  they  would,  if  die  they  could, 
But  death  will  not  be  had ; 
God's  direful  wrath  their  bodies  hath 
Forever  immortal  made. 
They  live  to  lie  in  misery 
And  bear  eternal  woe  ; 
And  live  they  must  whilst  God  is  just, 
That  he  may  plague  them  so." 

Then  follows  a  description  of  the  happiness  of  the  saints,  "  who  re 
joice  to  see  judgment  executed  upon  the  wicked  world."  The  passage 
just  quoted  is  very  mild  in  tone,  but  shows  the  utter  failure  of  the  stiff 
New  England  mind  to  deal  with  poetry.  The  subject,  it  is  true,  was 
an  impossible  one  to  anything  short  of  the  genius  of  Milton,  but  nev 
ertheless  Wigglesworth,  although  master  of  a  good  vocabulary,  was 
clearly  painfully  deficient  as  a  poet ;  yet  his  works  had  an  immense 
sale,  and  were  read  by  every  one  in  New  England,  and  reprinted 
in  London.  Wigglesworth  was,  however,  much  the  best  of  the  verse- 
makers.  After  his  time  the  wretched  school  of  the  euphuists  grad 
ually  died  out,  and  was  followed  by  equally  poor  ballad-makers,  and 
by  bad  imitators  of  Pope,  such  as  the  eminent  divines  Colman  and 
Byles.  Poetry  continued  to  be  cultivated,  however,  and  in  the  year 
1762,  a  series  of  adulatory  poems,  on  the  accession  of  George  III.,  en 
titled  "  Pietas  et  Gratulatio,"  emanated  from  the  college.  They  were 
written  in  faultless  Latin,  and  were  fully  up  to  the  level  of  the  English 
universities,  but  they  evinced  nothing  but  learning. 

In  other  fields  the  clergy  appeared  to  better  advantage.  The  pro 
found  learning  of  the  early  clergy  has  already  been  alluded  to,  and  its 
tradition  was  never  lost.  Conspicuous  among  them  was  the  Mather 
family,  eminent  for  four  generations.  Increase  Mather,  second  in  the 
succession,  was  not  only  a  foremost  man  in  politics,  but  was  a  prodigy 
of  learning.  He  could  read  and  write  Hebrew  and  Greek  with  per 
fect  ease,  and  speak  Latin  fluently  when  he  graduated ;  and  his  pub 
lished  works,  including  a  history  of  the  Indian  wars,  numbered  nine 
ty-two.  In  the  way  of  literary  productions,  however,  he  was  far  sur 
passed  by  his  son,  Cotton  Mather,  aptly  styled  by  the  historian  of 
American  literature  "  the  literary  behemoth  "  of  New  England.  Cot 
ton  Mather  published  three  hundred  and  eighty-three  books  and  pam- 


470  HISTORY  OF  THE 

phlets,  which  comprised  many  sermons,  treatises  on  every  possible 
topic,  and  the  great  folio  of  the  "  Magnalia  Christi."  Cotton  Mather 
was  a  man  of  undoubted  ability  and  vast  erudition,  and  much  of  his 
work  may  still  be  read  with  curiosity  and  interest;  but  as  a  historian 
he  was  untrustworthy,  and  his  style,  overcharged  and  involved,  was  the 
worst,  as  it  was  the  last,  in  the  fantastic  fashion  of  the  seventeenth 
century.  Besides  the  Mathers,  there  were  many  who  attained  repu 
tation  by  their  writings.  Samuel  Willard  gained  fame  by  a  massive 
folio,  entitled  the  "  Complete  Body  of  Divinity,"  a  posthumous  pub 
lication.  Benjamin  Colman,  for  many  years  the  first  preacher  in  Bos 
ton,  was  a  graceful  and  eloquent  man,  familiar  with  English  society, 
and  master  of  the  polished  Addisonian  style.  Mather  Byles,  "  aristo 
crat  and  apostle,"  the  last  of  the  long  line  —  although  driven  from 
his  pulpit  as  a  Tory  by  the  storm  of  the  Revolution — was  a  court 
ly,  elegant,  refined  man,  very  witty  in  society,  and  very  eloquent  as 
a  preacher — a  curious  contrast  to  the  men  of  1629,  whom  he  suc 
ceeded,  and  a  strange  witness  to  the  process  of  development.  A  fa 
mous  contemporary  and  champion  of  the  patriot  side  was  Jonathan 
Mayhew,  a  forcible  and  influential  controversialist.  The  wide  range 
of  pulpit  subjects  gave  great  scope  at  every  period  to  the  talents 
of  the  ministers ;  but  the  clergy  of  the  eighteenth  century  included 
in  their  ranks  one  man  who,  with  the  exception  of  Franklin,  was  the 
greatest  of  the  New  England  minds  during  the  colonial  period.  Jon 
athan  Edwards,  like  Franklin,  achieved  a  European  reputation,  and  his 
powerful  reasoning  was  renowned  wherever  the  doctrines  of  Calvin 
were  revered.  When  a  mere  child,  he  could  read  Greek,  Latin,  and 
Hebrew,  and  the  most  abstruse  English.  He  wrote  on  metaphysics 
while  still  in  college,  and  subsequently  achieved  distinction  as  a  phi 
losopher,  and  by  his  acquirements  in  physical  science.  He  was  the 
leader  of  a  great  party  in  the  Church,  and  as  a  reasoner  upon  doc 
trinal  questions  he  displayed  a  mental  vigor  and  severity  of  logic 
which  has  seldom  been  surpassed ;  while  his  work  upon  the  "  Free 
dom  of  the  Will  "  is  still  a  masterpiece  in  its  particular  field. 

The  clergy  at  first  monopolized  the  department  of  history,  as  they 
did  roost  others,  and  Hubbard  and  Increase  Mather  were  the  lead 
ers  in  this  branch ;  but  in  the  eighteenth  century  the  historians  in 
creased  in  number,  and  included  many  of  the  laity.  To  this  second 
period  belong  Calef,  Scottow,  Penhallow,  Church,  Douglass,  Prince, 
and  Hutchinson,  all  of  whom  produced  valuable  and  important  books; 
while  some  of  them — such  as  Hutchinson,  the  last  of  the  series — had 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  471 

real  literary  merit,  and  others — like  Church — besides  possessing  this 
quality,  narrate  personal  experiences  with  a  strong  dash  of  quaint 
humor,  and  much  originality. 

The  literary  activity  of  New  England,  and  the  intellectual  tastes  of 
the  people,  find  abundant  evidence  in  other  ways.  The  first  printing- 
press  in  America  was  started  in  Cambridge,  in  the  year  1639,  just  ten 
years  after  the  settlement,  and  its  career  was  never  checked  or  broken. 
In  1662  heresy  was  thought  to  be  about,  and  the  press  was  put  under 
the  charge  of  official  licensers,  a  restraint  which  was  not  removed  un 
til  1755;  but  the  work  of  this  early  press — its  effects  and  its  results 
— were  of  vast  importance,  and  show  conclusively  the  vigor  of  intel 
lectual  life  in  New  England.  The  earliest  form  of  current  literature 
was  the  Almanac,  a  species  of  publication  of  great  importance,  and 
widely  read  throughout  the  English  colonies.  The  first  was  issued 
from  the  Cambridge  press  in  1639 ;  and  the  next  colony  to  have  one 
was  Pennsylvania,  in  1686.  They  gradually  appeared  in  all  the  col 
onies,  and  were  crowned  finally  by  "  Poor  Richard,"  who  has  gained 
a  world -wide  fame.  The  first  newspaper,  too,  appeared  in  Boston 
in  1690.  It  was  entitled  Public  Occurrences,  and  was  promptly  sup 
pressed  for  "  uttering  reflections  of  a  very  high  nature."  The  next 
newspaper,  and  the  first  permanent  one  in  the  colonies,  was  the  Bos 
ton  News-letter,  which  appeared  in  1704  ;  and  in  1754  there  were  four 
newspapers  in  New  England,  all  published  in  Boston.  The  following 
year,  the  Connecticut  Gazette  was  started  in  New  Haven,  and  three 
years  later  the  Summary  appeared  at  New  London.  In  1775  Boston 
had  five  newspapers,  and  Salem,  Newburyport,  and  Portsmouth  one 
each.  These  journals  were  universally  read,  and  could  be  found  in 
the  remotest  farm-houses,  where  they  were  regularly  taken.  They 
formed,  however,  but  a  small  part  of  the  reading  of  the  people.  The 
best  literature  of  the  day,  and  the  English  classics,  were  always  in  the 
hands  of  the  educated  classes.  Even  so  strict  a  Puritan  as  Samuel 
Sewall  records  in  his  diary  that  he  read  Ben  Jonson ;  and  the  Spec 
tator  and  its  successors,  and  the  novels  of  Richardson,  found  their 
way  regularly  to  the  homes  of  Boston  merchants.  A  simple  mechanic 
like  Franklin's  father  had  a  good  library  of  polemical  divinity,  and 
hardly  any  New  England  family  was  so  poor  as  not  to  possess  a 
number  of  books,  commonly  of  a  religious  character.  Besides  this 
private  effort,  book  companies  were  formed — some  as  early  as  1737 
— for  the  importation  of  books ;  and  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution 
there  was  a  subscription  library  in  almost  every  township. 


472  HISTORY  OF  THE 

Science  was  never  carried  far,  and  the  appliances  for  its  study  were 
almost  wholly  wanting,  except  at  Cambridge.  Yet  from  the  time  of 
John  Winthrop,  of  Connecticut,  one  of  the  early  members  of  the  Roy 
al  Society,  and  a  man  of  broad  learning,  there  were  always  in  New 
England  a  few  men  zealously  engaged  in  scientific  investigation.  The 
arts  can  hardly  be  said  to  have  existed.  There  was  neither  the  oppor 
tunity  nor  the  wealth  so  essential  to  their  development.  Sewall  speaks 
of  the  death  of  "  Tom  Child,  the  Painter,"  and  there  was  a  succession 
of  portrait-painters  in  Boston  during  the  eighteenth  century,  including 
Pelham  and  Smibert,  and  concluding  with  the  famous  Copley.  There 
were  a  few  portraits  in  Faneuil  Hall  and  in  the  college,  and  here  and 
there  fine  pictures  bought  in  Europe  could  be  found  in  the  homes  of 
wealthy  merchants ;  but  art  was  wholly  exotic  and  very  limited,  and 
entered  in  no  perceptible  degree  into  the  life  of  the  people.  The  first 
faint  indications  could  be  discerned,  but  that  was  all.  Yet,  as  we  sur 
vey  the  whole  field  of  literature,  science,  and  art,  the  vigorous,  intel 
lectual  life  of  the  people  is  very  marked,  of  much  greater  strength,  and 
far  more  widely  diffused  and  desired,  than  in  any  other  part  of  the 
English  possessions.1 

The  only  intellectual  interest  which  entered  at  all  into  competi 
tion  with  religion  among  the  New  England  people  was  that  of  poli 
tics.  Not  only  was  the  pure  religion  to  find  a  refuge  in  the  New 
World,  but  there  the  Puritan  state  was  to  be  built  up  if  Charles  suc 
ceeded  in  establishing  a  despotism  in  the  mother  country.  The  trad 
ing  charter  of  the  Bay  Company  was  but  a  thin  veil  concealing  the 
really  independent  state  which  grew  up  in  Massachusetts.  The  sys 
tem  was  in  theory  thoroughly  democratic,  and  political  equality  was 
one  of  the  corner-stones  of  the  structure.  In  a  similar  fashion  the 
settlements  of  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island  developed  into  indepen 
dent  communities,  and  so  continued  down  to  and  beyond  the  Revolu 
tion.  The  old  charter  in  Massachusetts  was  lost,  and  New  Hampshire 

1  Brissot,  p.  86 ;  Tyler's  History  of  American  Literature,  ii.,  98  and  ff. ;  Wan- 
sey,  p.  47  ;  Nason's  Life  of  Frankland  ;  Thomas's  History  of  Printing ;  Mag.  Amer. 
History,  ii.,  247  ;  Rochefoucauld,  ii.,  214  ;  Coll.  Massachusetts  Hist.  Soc.,  V.,  vi., 
167, 170,  Sewall ;  Works  of  Franklin,  i.,  15  ;  Coll.  Massachusetts  Hist.  Soc.,  IV.,  iiM 
Douglas,  Letters  to  Colden ;  Ibid.,  IV.,  vii.,  Mather  Papers — New  Hampshire,  Far 
mer's  Hist.  Coll.,  ii.,  174,  176;  Annals  of  Portsmouth,  Adams,  p.  189  —  Connecti 
cut,  Barber's  Hist.  Coll.,  p.  164 ;  New  Haven,  Hist.  Coll.,  i.,  147;  History  of  New 
London,  p.  472  ;  History  of  Durham,  p.  104— Rhode  Island,  Chastellux,  p.  19 ;  Ca- 
hoon,  Sketches  of  Newport,  p.  66. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  473 

became  a  royal  province,  but  the  spirit  of  the  people  was  unchanged. 
Constant  conflicts  with  successive  governors  were  carried 'on  unceas 
ingly,  and  with  rare  ability,  so  that  not  only  did  prerogative  fail  to 
make  any  advance,  but  it  was  steadily  pushed  back.  The  jealousy 
of  external  power  never  slept.  Sewall  knew  of  no  power,  he  said,  to 
take  pirates  out  of  the  colony  for  trial  in  England,  and  the  seizure  of 
sailors  for  men-of-war  was  steadily  opposed  and  openly  resisted.  A 
little  incident,  early  in  the  eighteenth  century,  shows  the  underlying 
sense  of  equality  before  God  and  the  law  which  reigned  in  New  Eng 
land,  despite  the  conservative  recognition  of  ranks  and  distinction. 
The  Governor's  coach  in  winter  met  some  carts  in  a  narrow  road,  and 
the  teamsters  not  getting  quickly  out  of  the  way,  Governor  Dudley 
and  his  son  alighted,  ordered  the  men  aside,  and  drew  their  swords 
upon  them.  Blows  followed.  "  I  am  as  good  flesh  and  blood  as  you !" 
said  the  carter,  closing  with  the  Governor,  and  breaking  his  sword. 
The  carters  were  soon  after  arrested  and  sent  to  prison,  pursued  by 
the  Governor  with  a  bitter  spirit  of  revenge,  but  when  they  came  be 
fore  the  court  and  the  evidence  was  all  in,  they  were  discharged.  The 
Governor  was  powerless,  for  public  sentiment  sustained  the  men  who 
had  been  dealt  with  as  if  they  were  inferiors  and  entitled  to  no  rights. 

Another  feature  of  the  New  England  character  which  helped  to 
increase  the  love  of  political  independence  and  self-government,  was 
the  keen  dislike  of  foreigners  and  great  pride  of  race.  Except  the 
few  French  Huguenots  of  the  seventeenth  century,  who  were  gladly 
welcomed  in  New  England,  no  foreigners  came  among  them.  They 
hated  Papists,  and  Irish,  and  Frenchmen  with  a  bitter  hatred.  Even  the 
Scotch  Presbyterians  of  Londonderry  were  distrusted  and  disliked,  be 
cause  papacy  was  suspected  in  all  who  came  from  Ireland ;  and  even 
the  timely  help  of  France  in  the  Revolution  could  not  obliterate  the 
sense  of  inherited  enmity  and  deep  suspicion.  The  process  of  natu 
ralization  was  slow,  difficult,  and  very  rare,  and  the  practice  was  utter 
ly  discouraged.  As  soon  as  England  put  herself  in  the  position  of  an 
external  and  foreign  power  this  deep-rooted  dislike  of  foreigners  ex 
tended  to  her,  and  combined  with  the  strong  spirit  of  liberty  and  ha 
tred  of  interference  to  bring  on  the  resort  to  arms. 

Yet  with  all  this  there  were  few  grievances,  and  the  people  were 
thoroughly  loyal.  Apart  from  an  angry  dread  of  a  colonial  bishop, 
there  was  none  of  the  Church  oppression  which  did  so  much  to  alien 
ate  the  other  colonies.  The  laws  of  trade  bore  hardly  upon  New 
England  ;  but  they  were  so  generally  evaded  and  disregarded,  either 


474  HISTORY  OF  THE 

by  the  venality  of  the  collectors,  a  post  highly  valued  on  this  account, 
or  by  open  and  unpunished  violation,  that  in  practice  they  were  not 
felt.  When  the  British  ministry  began  to  enforce  them,  the  first 
sense  of  oppression  was  given  to  the  New  England  people.  The 
genuine  loyalty  of  the  people  was  unquestioned.  All  the  best  evi 
dence  of  the  time  concurs  on  this  point,  and  we  have  the  direct  opin 
ion  of  such  a  man  as  John  Adams  as  to  its  truth.  The  deepest  in 
terest  was  felt  in  every  public  event  in  England,  and  the  Protestant 
succession  was  very  dear  to  the  descendants  of  the  Puritans.  They 
rejoiced  publicly  on  every  victory  of  the  English  arms ;  they  cele 
brated  royal  births,  marriages,  and  coronations  with  all  the  pomp  they 
could  muster.  They  mourned  formally  and  carefully  on  the  occasion 
of  every  death  in  the  royal  family,  and  these  outward  manifestations 
were  not  tainted  with  hypocrisy.  They  still  looked  back  to  England 
as  the  home  of  their  race,  and  her  glory  was  theirs.  But  everybody 
in  New  England  was  a  politician.  "They  are  all  politicians  down 
to  the  house-maids,"  says  Rochefoucauld,  "  and  read  two  newspapers 
a  day."  Politics  always  ran  high,  and  parties  were  strong  and  ac 
tive.  There  was  no  need  of  an  elaborate  warning  to  such  people 
that  their  rights  were  invaded.  They  all  knew  it  by  instinct,  and, 
once  aroused,  the  old  spirit  pf  independent  government  and  the  ha 
tred  of  outside  interference  broke  out  and  could  not  be  quenched. 
Thus  it  was  that,  when  England  began  to  meddle  with  the  colonies 
which  Sir  Robert  Walpole  had  so  wisely  neglected,  the  opposition 
began,  and  the  war  opened  on  the  soil  of  New  England.  There  were 
no  special  grievances,  there  was  no  peculiar  disloyalty ;  but  there  was 
a  thoroughly  homogeneous  people,  pure  of  race,  wedded  to  indepen 
dence,  all  educated,  all  keen  politicians,  hating  external  power,  and  still 
imbued  with  the  traditions  of  their  fathers,  who  had  fought  the  great 
Rebellion  and  brought  a  king  to  execution.  Such  a  people  could  not 
be  governed  except  as  seemed  right  in  their  own  eyes ;  and  when  an 
attempt  was  made  to  rule  them  in  other  ways  the  war  for  indepen 
dence  began.1 

1  Abbe  Robin,  pp.  22,  26,  28 ;  Claude  Blanchard,  p.  48  ;  Brissot,  p.  87 ;  Journal 
of  Labadists,  Long  Island  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  i. ;  Nason's  Life  of  Frankland ;  Proc. 
Massachusetts  Hist.  Soc.,  ii.,  337,  Naturalization ;  New  England  Hist.  Gen.  Reg.,  xiii., 
328 ;  xxx.,  328,  Letters  of  Jay  and  Adams* on  Loyalty  of  Colonies ;  Rochefoucauld, 
i.,  398 ;  Coll.  Massachusetts  Hist.  Soc.,  III.,  ii.,  26  ;  IV.,  ii.,  Douglass  to  Golden ;  V., 
vi.,4, 144,  317,  327  — New  Hampshire  Hist.  Soc.,  i.,  155;  vii.,  35;  Parker's  Lon 
donderry,  pp.  70,  77 ;  Connecticut,  History  of  New  London,  p.  406  ;  Rhode  Island, 
Fersen,  p.  40 ;  Rochefoucauld,  i.,  496. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  475 

New  England  is  the  last  of  the  three  groups  of  colonies.  It  is  easy 
to  see  the  qualities  which  were  peculiar  to  her  people,  and  the  great 
divergence  between  their  system  and  that  of  the  South.  The  former 
were  pure  in  race,  simple  and  frugal  in  their  lives,  thrifty,  prosperous, 
and  enterprising,  a  population  of  small  freeholders,  with  slight  in 
equalities  of  condition,  and  a  wide-spread  and  high  average  of  educa 
tion  and  intelligence.  Their  system  was  democratic,  with  a  voluntary 
recognition  of  aristocracy.  From  this  strong  and  vigorous  race  came 
many  great  leaders,  eminent  in  civil  and  military  life ;  but  the  great 
strength  was  in  the  body  of  the  people.  They  were  all  imbued  with 
the  same  principles,  they  all  had  the  same  unyielding  tenacity  of  pur 
pose,  reckless  audacity,  shrewdness,  and  force.  They  carried  their 
principles  into  the  new  national  government  of  the  United  Colonies. 
Between  them  and  Virginia  was  the  contest  for  supremacy,  while  the 
great  middle  colonies  held  the  balance ;  and  the  history  of  that  con 
flict  of  ideas  is  the  history  of  the  United  States. 


476  BISTORT  OF  THE 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

PREPARING  FOR  REVOLUTION:    FROM  1765  TO  1776. 

IN  October,  1765,  the  representatives  of  nine  colonies  met  in  Con 
gress  at  New  York  and  founded  the  American  Union,  for  the 
example  of  federation  once  given  was  not  forgotten,  and  was 
quickly  followed.  Timothy  Ruggles,  of  Massachusetts,  was  chosen  Pres 
ident  ;  but  the  leaders  on  the  floor  were  Gadsden  and  Rutledge,  of 
South  Carolina,  and  Otis,  of  Massachusetts.  Under  the  lead  of  South 
Carolina,  the  arguments  founded  on  chartered  privileges  were  laid  aside, 
and  the  broad  doctrines  of  inalienable  rights  and  liberties  were  adopt 
ed.  In  a  series  of  resolutions  and  memorials  to  both  Houses  of  Par 
liament  the  Congress  asserted  the  right  to  trial  by  jury  against  an  ex 
tended  admiralty  jurisdiction,  the  right  to  freedom  from  taxation,  ex 
cept  by  the  colonial  assemblies,  as  the  people  could  not  be  represented 
in  Parliament,  and,  therefore,  that  Parliament  could  not  constitution 
ally  tax  them.  They  complained  of  the  acts  of  trade,  admitted  a  due 
submission  to  King  and  Parliament,  and  the  right  of  Parliament  to 
legislate  generally  and  to  regulate  trade ;  but  beyond  this  they  would 
not  go.  Ruggles,  of  Massachusetts,  and  Ogden,  of  New  Jersey,  alone 
refused  to  sign,  and  the  latter  was  hung  in  effigy  for  his  pains.  Mean 
time  the  current  of  popular  resistance  flowed  on  stronger  and  fuller 
than  ever.  Agreements  not  to  import  English  manufactures  were  rap 
idly  formed.  Everywhere  there  was  a  general  opposition  to  the  Stamp 
Act,  and  mobs  forced  the  collectors  to  resign.  On  the  first  day  of 
November,  when  the  act  was  to  take  effect,  bells  were  tolled,  proces 
sions  formed,  and  the  goddess  of  liberty  buried.  No1  one  would  use 
the  stamps.  In  Connecticut  the  newspapers  appeared  without  them. 
In  Boston  there  was  a  fierce  mob,  which,  after  compelling  Oliver  to 
resign  his  office  in  the  presence  of  a  great  crowd,  ran  riot,  and  sack 
ed  the  house  of  Hutchinson,  the  Lieutenant-governor.  In  New  York 
the  "  Sons  of  Liberty,"  guided  by  Isaac  Sears,  the  popular  leader  of 
the  town,  boldly  faced  Colden,  who  had  prepared  to  use  the  Eng- 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  477 

lish  troops,  burnt  him  in  effigy,  sacked  the  house  of  a  British  officer, 
and  finally  obliged  the  reluctant  Governor  to  yield  the  stamps  into  the 
keeping  of  the  city  government.  They  followed  this  up  by  seizing 
the  stamped  paper  intended  for  Connecticut,  and  burning  it  in  the 
streets.  The  Maryland  distributor  fled  to  New  York,  only  to  be  ar 
rested  there  by  the  watchful  Sons  of  Liberty,  and  forced  to  resign. 
In  Charleston  the  act  was  burnt,  and  the  bells  of  the  city  tolled.  The 
Stamp  Act  was  annulled  in  America. 

While  the  storm  raged  in  the  colonies,  the  Rockingham  ministry 
met  Parliament.  They  were  not  prepared  then  to  deal  with  the 
American  question,  and  when  they  met  again  after  the  recess  they 
had  reached  no  agreement.  The  matter,  however,  could  not  be  post 
poned,  and  the  debate  opened  on  the  address  to  the  King. 
On  that  memorable  night  Pitt  took  the  floor,  and,  while  up 
holding  the  power  of  Parliament  to  legislate  generally  and  to  control 
trade,  denied  their  right  to  lay  internal  taxes  on  the  colonies.  Gren- 
ville  ably  defended  the  act  of  which  he  was  the  author;  and  then 
Pitt  spoke  again,  contrary  to  rule,  and  uttered  the  famous  sentence 
which  rang  through  two  continents :  "  Sir,  I  rejoice  that  America  has 
resisted."  At  last  the  ministry  had  a  policy,  the  one  pointed  out  by 
the  great  commoner.  They  brought  in  two  acts,  one  declaring  the 
power  of  Parliament  to  be  supreme  over  the  colonies  in  every  respect, 
and  another  repealing  the  Stamp  Act.  A  month  passed  in  the  exam 
ination  of  witnesses  by  the  Commons,  and  in  debates  by  the  Lords. 
Camden  defended  with  splendid  eloquence  the  position  that  taxation 
without  representation  was  unconstitutional,  and  put  the  matter  fur 
ther  on  the  broad  and  statesman-like  ground  that,  however  the  law 
might  be,  the  great  principles  of  justice  demanded  that  the  Ameri 
cans  should  be  allowed  to  tax  themselves.  He  was  answered  by  Mans 
field  in  a  speech  of  consummate  ability,  and  was  hopelessly  defeat 
ed  on  a  division.  Parliament  would  not  accept  the  doctrine  of  Pitt. 
On  the  seventeenth  of  February,  Con  way,  who  had  never  faltered  or 
changed  in  his  opposition  to  the  Stamp  Act,  brought  in  a  resolution 
for  its  repeal ;  there  was  another  great  debate,  and  the  resolution 
passed.  The  conflict  was  protracted  still  longer,  but  at  last  both  the 
repeal  and  the  act  declaratory  of  the  supreme  power  of  Parliament 
passed  both  Houses.  The  theory  was  maintained,  but  the  practice 
was  abandoned,  for  the  pressure  in  England  had  become  too  great  to 
be  borne.  The  non-importation  agreements  of  the  colonies  had  struck 
home  to  the  pockets  of  the  English  manufacturers,  and  eager  crowds 


478  •        HISTORY  OF  THE 

had  filled  the  lobbies,  and  hailed  with  shouts  the  appearance  of  Con- 
way,  after  his  memorable  victory  of  the  seventeenth  of  February. 
The  news  of  the  repeal  filled  America  with  rejoicing  and  happiness. 
Portraits  and  statues  of  Pitt  and  Conway,  of  Barre  and  of  the  King, 
were  ordered  by  the  grateful  assemblies;  and  celebrations  of  the 
great  event  were  held  everywhere,  and  the  defenders  of  American  lib 
erty  were  toasted  and  applauded. 

All  this  rejoicing  was  as  natural  as  it  was  unfounded.  The  Stamp 
Act  had  been  repealed,  the  immediate  grievance  had  been  remedied ; 
but  the  new  policy  of  taxation  was  checked,  not  defeated ;  the  princi 
ple  of  the  supreme  power  of  Parliament  had  been  strongly  asserted, 
and  was  more  full  of  vitality  and  meaning  than  ever  before.  The 
great  debate,  in  which  all  the  eloquence  and  reason  of  England's 
statesmen  had  been  employed,  had  resulted  in  the  establishment  of 
the  principle  and  the  defeat  of  a  particular  measure.  Pitt's  position 
was  that  of  a  great  statesman,  of  a  broad  and  liberal-minded  man,  but 
his  theory  was  untenable.  There  was  no  middle  ground  between  the 
doctrine  of  Mansfield  that  Parliament  was  everywhere  supreme,  and 
that  of  some  of  the  Americans  that  internal  and  external  taxation 
were  alike  unconstitutional.  If  Pitt's  theory  had  been  adopted  and 
acted  upon  as  he  himself  would  have  acted  upon  it,  all  would  have 
gone  well.  It  would  have  been  neither  the  first  nor  the  last  impossi 
ble  compromise  in  the  history  of  the  English  race  to  have  met  with 
success.  But  Parliament  was  logical,  if  nothing  else,  and  it  believed 
its  own  power  to  be  supreme  and  complete,  and  so  declared  it.  That 
it  would  soon  put  its  theory  in  practice,  and  that  America  would  soon 
take  up  the  opposite  and  equally  logical  position,  was  certain ;  the 
only  question  was  one  of  time,  and  events  moved  rapidly. 

The  sound  of  the  rejoicings  called  forth  by  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp 
Act  had  hardly  died  away  before  it  was  seen  how  little  had  really 
been  gained  beyond  immediate  and  temporary  relief.  The  Stamp 
Act  was  gone,  but  the  Declaratory  Act,  and  the  Sugar  Act,  and  the 
Mutiny  Act,  requiring  quarters  to  be  provided  for  English  troops, 
and  recently  extended  to  the  colonies,  remained  unmodified  and  un 
changed.  The  Rockingham  ministry  was  dissolved ;  Pitt  came  again 
to  the  helm,  and  was  made  the  Earl  of  Chatham.  The  clouds  of  his 
strange  illness  gathered  about  the  prime-minister,  and  the  conduct  of 
affairs  fell  into  the  hands  of  Charles  Townshend,  a  believer  in  the 
Stamp  Act,  and  with  no  faith  in  Pitt's  distinction  between  internal 
and  external  taxation.  He  was  determined  to  pursue  the  policy  of 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  479 

Grenville,  and  laid  his  plans  to  quarter  garrisons  in  the  large  towns  of 
America,  and  have  them  supported  by  the  colonial  assemblies,  and  to 
exact  a  revenue  from  the  colonies.  The  trouble  had,  indeed,  already 
begun  in  New  York,  where  the  Assembly,  which  had  passed  a  limited 
act  for  the  supply  of  two  regiments  in  December,  1766,  refused  to 
provide  for  quartering  troops,  and  stood  firm  through  a  long  contro 
versy  with  Sir  Henry  Moore.  In  the  following  spring,  Parliament, 
under  the  lead  of  Townshend,  suspended  the  legislative  powers 
of  New  York,  as  a  punishment  for  their  disobedience.  This 
was  a  warning  which  could  not  be  mistaken.  In  the  other  colonies, 
even  when  requisitions  were  complied  with,  there  was  careful  evasion 
of  obedience  to  the  terms  of  the  act,  and  sympathy  with  New  York 
spread  far  and  wide,  carrying  with  it  deep  disquiet  and  indignation. 
Not  content  with  beginning  to  enforce  the  Mutiny  Act,  Townshend 
carried  measures  to  impose  port  duties  on  wine,  oil,  and  fruit  from 
Spain  and  Portugal,  and  on  glass,  paper,  lead,  colors,  and  tea.  The 
revenue  thus  raised  was  to  be  used  for  the  payment  of  the  Crown 
officers,  and  for  the  establishment  of  a  civil  list.  This  was  a  blow  at 
the  most  vital  rights  of  the  colonies,  for  it  took  from  them  the  con 
trol  of  their  governments.  The  new  policy,  unchecked  by  the  death  of 
Townshend  in  the  autumn  of  1767,  excited  the  utmost  apprehension 
in  America,  and  fanned  into  flame  the  smouldering  embers  of  the  op 
position  to  the  Stamp  Act.  Again  non-importation  agreements  were 
discussed,  but  without  combination  or  effect ;  and  Massachusetts,  thor 
oughly  alarmed  at  the  prospect  of  independent  Crown  officers,  de 
termined  on  stronger  measures.  The  Assembly  resolved  to 
send  a  petition  to  the  King,  and  letters  to  the  statesmen  of 
England.  In  the  petition  drawn,  probably,  by  Samuel  Adams,  the 
Assembly  set  forth  the  conditions  of  their  settlement,  argued  against 
taxation  without  representation,  and  protested  against  the  presence  of 
a  standing  army,  and  the  project  of  rendering  the  judicial  and  execu 
tive  officers  independent  of  the  people.  They  followed  this  action  by 
a  resolve  inviting  the  other  colonies  to  unite  with  them  in  petitions 
to  the  King  against  the  new  taxation.  At  every  step  Bernard  and 
Hutchinson  resisted  the  Assembly,  which  moved  forward  steadily, 
cautiously,  and  firmly,  making  no  mistakes,  and  giving  no  openings. 
Bernard  and  the  Crown  officers  met  the  action  of  the  Assembly  by  a 
counter -memorial,  inveighing  against  the  freedom  and  independent 
temper  of  the  colonists,  and  advising  the  immediate  presence  of  fleets 
and  armies ;  supporting  their  requests  with  tales  of  projected  riots,  for 


480  HISTORY  OF  THE 

the  people  had  begun  to  be  restless,  although  there  was  really  no  dan 
ger  of  any  serious  outbreak. 

Hillsborough,  the  new  Secretary  of  State,  and  the  King's  friends 
were  indignant  at  the  action  of  Massachusetts,  and  letters  were  sent  to 
the  other  colonies  denouncing  the  Massachusetts  circular,  and  to  Ber 
nard,  instructing  him  to  order  the  House  to  rescind  their  resolve,  and, 
if  they  refused,  to  dissolve  them.  Meantime,  the  excitement  increased. 
John  Hancock's  sloop,  Liberty,  was  seized,  on  the  ground  of  evasion 
of  the  customs.  There  was  a  slight  disturbance,  and  revenue  officers, 
in  pretended  fear  of  their  lives,  took  refuge  on  the  Romney  man-of- 
war,  while  the  town  and  the  Governor  quarrelled  about  the  affair. 
When  the  general  court  met,  strengthened  by  the  sympathy  of  Con 
necticut  and  New  Jersey,  and  by  the  letter  of  Virginia,  where  their 
principles  had  been  sustained  by  resolutions  of  the  Burgesses,  Hills- 
borough's  letter  was  presented.  The  House,  by  an  overwhelming  vote, 
refused  to  rescind ;  the  court  was  dissolved,  and  Massachusetts  was 
left  without  a  legislature.  Boston  town-meeting  took  into  its  hands 
the  power  which  Hillsborough  and  Bernard  sought  to  crush.  They 
called  a  convention  of  delegates  from  the  towns  of  the  province  while 
troops  were  on  their  way  to  Massachusetts ;  and  this  convention  came 
together,  demanded  in  vain  a  general  court,  passed  strong  resolutions 
against  taxation  and  a  standing  army,  and  adjourned,  while  the  Coun 
cil  refused  to  make  provision  for  the  expected  soldiers  until  the  bar 
racks  were  filled,  and  the  old  beacon  was  prepared  as  in  the  days  of 
Andros.  Soon  after  the  convention  dissolved,  two  regiments,  present 
ly  increased  to  four,  and  artillery,  landed  and  marched  into  the  town. 
The  Council  refused  quarters  until  the  barracks  were  occupied ;  and, 
after  camping  for  some  time  in  the  open  air,  the  troops  were  finally 
quartered  and  supplied  at  the  expense  of  the  Crown.  No  measure 
could  possibly  have  been  taken  better  calculated  to  produce  civil  war. 
The  troops  were  sent  to  overawe,  and  they  merely  irritated  the  people. 
Into  a  peaceful  town,  into  a  province  which  had  simply  remonstrated 
and  petitioned  legally  and  properly  in  defence  of  their  rights,  were 
suddenly  thrust  royal  regiments.  The  strong  feeling  of  independence 
in  a  country  where  garrisons  were  absolutely  unknown  was  outraged, 
while  the  bad  character  and  licentious  habits  of  the  soldiery  incensed 
a  rigid,  austere,  and  sober  people.  Attempts  at  military  coercion  and 
the  presence  of  troops  were  sure  to  breed  trouble ;  and,  worse  than 
this,  they  not  only  awakened  the  sympathy  of  the  other  colonies, 
but  alarmed  them  for  their  own  safety.  It  was  outside  pressure  and 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  481 

peril  in  its  strongest  form,  and  nothing  tended  so  strongly  to  produce 
that  union  which  alone  could  be  fatal  to  English  rule. 

In  Virginia,  when  the  Burgesses  met,  resolutions  were  passed  de 
claring  against  taxation,  and  asserting  the  right  to  trial  by  a 
jury  of  the  vicinage,  and  to  combination  among  the  colonies. 
Botetourt  dissolved  the  Assembly,  and  the  Burgesses  met  in  conven 
tion  and  formed  a  stringent  non-importation  agreement.  Virginia 
carried  with  her  the  southern  colonies,  her  example  was  followed 
in  Delaware  and  Pennsylvania,  and  when  the  general  court  came  to 
gether  again  in  Massachusetts  they  promptly  adopted  the  resolutions. 
Some  of  the  troops  had  been  withdrawn;  but  two  regiments  were  kept 
on  Bernard's  request,  and  he  and  the  legislature  were  in  no  good-hu 
mor  when  they  met  at  Cambridge,  whither  the  Governor  adjourned 
them.  The  House  refused  flatly  to  provide  for  troops,  or  to  give  a 
salary  for  the  year  to  Bernard,  who  was  recalled,  and  who  soon  after, 
having  prorogued  the  refractory  Assembly,  departed  from  Boston, 
amid  the  noisy  rejoicings  of  the  populace,  leaving  Hutchinson  to 
rule  in  his  stead.  While  Massachusetts  and  Virginia  were  thus  com 
ing  together,  and  preparing  the  American  union,  the  ministry  in  Eng 
land,  halting  and  undecided,  rather  frightened  at  the  results  of  their 
energetic  policy,  and  desperately  embroiled  with  Wilkes,  decided  to  re 
cede.  They  sent  a  circular  to  the  colonies,  promising  to  lay  no  more 
taxes,  and  to  repeal  the  duties  on  glass,  paper,  and  colors,  retaining 
only  that  on  tea.  Their  action  was  that  of  well-meaning,  narrow,  and 
weak  men.  They  should  either  then  and  there  have  enforced  their 
policy  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet,  or  they  should  have  fully  and 
frankly  given  way  on  every  point.  To  save  their  pride,  maintain 
their  doctrines,  and  please  the  King,  they  retained  one  paltry  tax, 
yielding,  perhaps,  three  hundred  pounds  a  year,  but  which  carried  the 
vital  principle  with  it  as  surely  and  clearly  as  revenue  involving  mill 
ions.  The  course  of  the  ministry  had  slowly  brought  the  conflict  to 
the  point  at  which  complete  victory  on  one  side  or  the  other  was 
alone  possible.  The  colonies  were  fully  alive  to  the  situation,  and 
saw  that  while  one  tax  remained  nothing  had  been  gained.  The  non 
importation  agreements  spread  everywhere,  and  were  strongly  en 
forced,  and  all  society  was  drawn  into  a  refusal  to  use  tea.  Conflicts 
with  the  revenue  officers  in  Rhode  Island  and  elsewhere  grew  more 
and  more  frequent,  and  the  relations  of  the  people  with  the 
soldiery  in  New  York  and  Boston  more  and  more  strained. 
In  New  York  there  were  violent  affrays  between  the  soldiers  and  the 

31 


482  HISTORY  OF  THE 

people  over  the  erection  of  the  liberty-pole,  and  there  was  fighting  in 
the  streets.  These  outbreaks  heightened  feeling  in  Boston,  where  the 
soldiers  were  taunted  and  insulted,  and  where  recurring  fights  between 
populace  and  redcoats  showed  that  a  crisis  was  at  hand.  On  the  third 
of  March  there  was  an  ugly  brawl,  and  on  the  evening  of  the  fifth  there 
was  another  fray  and  trouble  with  the  sentry.  Before  quiet  was  re 
stored  there  was  renewed  fighting,  and  a  crowd  gathered  round  the 
sentry  in  King  Street.  Alarmed  and  angry,  the  man  called  out  the 
guard;  the  mob  rapidly  increased  ;  insults  were  followed  by  missiles; 
one  soldier  discharged  his  gun ;  there  was  a  scattering  fire  from  the 
troops,  and  three  of  the  citizens  were  killed  and  two  mortally  wound 
ed.  Blood  had  been  shed,  and  it  looked  as  if  civil  war  had  begun. 
The  regiments  were  turned  out,  the  people  poured  into  the  streets ; 
it  was  a  mere  chance  that  the  American  Revolution  was  not  then  to 
open.  But  Hutchinson  appeared  in  the  balcony  of  the  State-house, 
promised  an  investigation,  and  besought  peace.  The  people  dispersed, 
and  war  was  for  the  moment  averted ;  yet  nothing  could  efface  the 
memory  of  this  affray.  Regular  troops  had  fired  upon  the  citizens, 
human  life  had  been  sacrificed,  and  the  exaggerated  title  of  the  "  Bos 
ton  Massacre  "  showed  the  importance  attached  to  this  event,  which 
served  for  years  to  keep  alive  and  develop  resistance  to  England. 

The  morning  after  the  massacre  the  select-men  waited  on  Hutchin- 
son,  and  urged  the  removal  of  the  soldiers*  At  eleven  the  town  meet 
ing  came  together,  and  chose  a  committee,  with  Samuel  Adams  at  its 
head,  to  wait  upon  the  Governor,  and  demand  the  withdrawal  of  the 
troops.  Hutchinson  wished  to  delay  and  postpone.  He  offered  to 
have  the  Twenty-ninth  Regiment,  which  had  fired  on  the  people,  re-' 
moved  to  the  castle,  and  the  other  put  under  proper  restraint.  The 
committee  went  back  through  thronged  streets,  and  made  its  report, 
which  was  pronounced  unsatisfactory,  and  a  new  committee,  again 
headed  by  Adams,  went  back  to  the  Governor.  The  interview  which 
followed  in  the  Council  -  chamber,  as  the  daylight  slowly  faded,  was 
one  of  the  great  dramatic  scenes  of  the  American  Revolution.  In 
that  moment  Samuel  Adams  was  pre-eminent,  and  all  the  greatness 
and  force  of  his  mind  and  character  concentrated  to  raise  him  up  as 
the  great  tribune  of  the  people.  The  incarnation  of  right  and  justice, 
the  true  champion  of  the  people,  he  stood  before  the  fit  representative 
of  a  weak,  vacillating,  proud,  and  stupid  ministry,  and  made  that  rep 
resentative  quail  before  him.  "  If  you  can  remove  one,  you  can  re 
move  both,"  he  said  to  Hutchinson ;  "  there  are  three  thousand  peo- 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  483 

pie  in  yonder  town-meeting;  the  country  is  rising;  night  is  falling, 
and  we  must  have  an  answer."  Hutchinson  hesitated  a  moment, 
trembled,  and  gave  way.  Before  a  week  elapsed,  all  the  troops  were 
withdrawn ;  and  meantime  they  had  watched  the  funerals  of  their 
victims,  seen  their  companions  arrested  for  murder,  beheld  a  town- 
meeting  called  to  hurry  their  departure,  and  had  been  kept  under 
strict  guard  by  the  militia  of  the  town  they  went  forth  to  garrison. 
Staying  and  going  were  alike  full  of  humiliation  and  defeat.  It  was 
a  great  triumph ;  and  as  the  news  spread  of  the  events  at  Boston,  a 
strong  sense  of  relief  filled  the  colonies. 

While  the  colonies  were  thus  engaged  the  Duke  of  Grafton  had 
fallen  from  power,  and  the  "  King's  friends,"  led  by  Lord  North,  were 
at  the  head  of  affairs.  With  the  full  concurrence  of  Parliament,  they 
repealed  the  obnoxious  taxes,  but  succeeded  by  a  slender  majority  in 
retaining  the  fatal  duty  on  tea.  The  mitigated  policy  of  England 
and  the  victory  at  Boston  tended  to  sow  dissension  among  the  col 
onies.  Virginia  and  other  southern  provinces  began  to  slacken  in 
the  enforcement  of  the  non-importation  agreement ;  and  New  York, 
where  enforcement  had  been  most  stringent,  after  chafing  under  this 
relaxation  elsewhere,  finally,  though  not  without  much  opposition  from 
Sears  and  his  followers,  abandoned  the  agreement,  except  so  far  as  it 
related  to  tea.  It  looked  as  if  the  temporizing  policy  of  the  ministry 
would  work  its  natural  result  in  dividing  the  colonies  and  appeasing 
resentment,  and  that  the  troubled  waters  would  subside,  and  flow  qui 
etly  in  their  old  channels.  All  this  would  have  come  to  pass  if  the 
English  ministers  had  not  insisted  on  emphasizing  the  declarations  of 
the  powers  of  Parliament  by  retaining  a  nominal  tax  on  tea,  and  if 
they  had  let  the  refractory  province  of  Massachusetts  alone ;  but  they 
would  neither  give  up  'the  one  nor  refrain  from  the  other. 

In  the  town  of  Boston  the  conflict,  which  was  fast  dying  out  in 
the  other  colonies,  was  sedulously  kept  up  by  the  representatives  of 
the  Crown.  Hutchinson  again  summoned  the  general  court  at  Cam 
bridge,  an  act  as  unnecessary  as  it  was  ill-advised;  and,  while  the 
House  remonstrated,  all  legislation  stood  still.  Hutchinson  reproached 
them  with  their  disregard  of  the  rescinding  order ;  and,  in  obedience 
to  Hillsborough's  instructions,  gave  up  to  Colonel  Dalrymple  the  pos 
session  of  the  fort,  reserved  by  the  charter  to  the  Governor.  While 
Boston  was  thus  being  converted  into  a  military  station,  and  the  Gov 
ernor  of  Massachusetts  was  urging  the  destruction  of  her  charter,  the 
general  court  elected  Be&jamin  Franklin  their  agent  to  plead  their 


484  HISTORY  OF  THE 

cause  in  England.  The  overthrow  of  the  regulators  in  North  Caro 
lina  strengthened  the  Crown  in  the  south,  and  Lord  North's  ministry 
gained  stability  and  votes  enough  to  assure  working  majorities.  To 
men  like  Samuel  Adams,  who  had  begun  to  feel  that  the  true  solution 
of  all  difficulties  was  to  be  found  in  independence,  the  outlook  was 
very  dark.  The  next  year  Hutchinson  again  called  the  general  court  at 
Cambridge,  and  again  the  House  protested  against  this  unre 
strained  use  of  the  prerogative.  Hutchinson  vetoed  the  supply 
bill  because  the  incomes  of  the  commissioners  of  revenue  were  not  ex 
empted,  and  the  House  remonstrated  strongly,  taking  the  ground  that 
such  exemption  struck  at  the  very  root  of  free  government,  and  tend 
ed  to  vacate  the  charter.  The  power  of  King  and  Parliament  was 
fairly  drawn  into  the  discussion,  and  the  Governor  and  Assembly 
parted  in  no  good-humor.  The  apparent  tranquillity  of  the  southern 
states,  which  encouraged  Hillsborough  to  urge  Hutchinson  forward  in 
his  arbitrary  course,  began  to  show  signs  of  disturbance.  The 
Governors  of  Georgia  and  North  Carolina  were  at  odds  with 
their  Assemblies ;  and  the  petition  of  Virginia — warmly  supported  in 
the  northern  colonies — that  the  slave-trade  might  be  checked  was  dis 
regarded  and  overruled.  In  Rhode  Island  there  was  much  bitter  feel 
ing  against  the  officers  of  customs,  and  especially  against  Duddington, 
the  commander  of  the  cruiser  Gaspee,  who  insulted  and  abused  the 
inhabitants  and  fired  on  their  boats.  In  June  Duddington  gave  chase 
to  the  Providence  packet,  and  ran  his  vessel  aground.  Boats  came 
off  from  Providence  in  the  night,  manned  by  colonists,  who  boarded 
the  hated  cruiser,  wounded  Duddington  in  the  scuffle,  took  him  and 
his  crew  prisoners,  and  then,  setting  fire  to  the  Gaspee,  burnt  her  to 
the  water's  edge.  Civil  war  was  not  far  distant  when  the  people 
were  ripe  for  acts  like  these. 

In  Massachusetts,  Hutchinson,  for  the  fourth  time,  convened  the 
general  court  at  Cambridge,  but  at  last  gave  way  on  this  point  of  use 
less  offence,  and  adjourned  them  to  Boston.  There  the  House  gave 
its  attention  to  the  danger  to  their  constitutional  rights  from  the  pay 
ment  of  Crown  officers  by  warrant  from  a  fund  established  by  Parlia 
ment,  and  adopted  a  report  which  hinted  in  plain  terms  that  such  a 
course  relieved  them  from  their  dependence.  Even  while  the  storm 
was  slowly  gathering,  and  while  its  mutterings  could  be  heard  in  all 
parts  of  the  continent,  Hillsborough  hastened  to  announce  that  the 
King  had  made  provision  for  the  support  of  the  law  officers  in  Massa 
chusetts.  The  drift  of  this  measure  was  plainly  seen  by  Adams,  and 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  485 

he  began  at  once  to  move  against  it.  At  the  October  town-meeting 
a  committee  was  raised  to  inquire  of  the  Governor  if  the  judges  were 
to  be  paid,  and  to  ask  that  the  Assembly  meet  on  the  day  to  which 
it  had  been  prorogued.  The  Governor  refused  to  answer  the  question, 
and  denied  to  the  town  the  right  of  demanding  a  meeting  of  the  gen 
eral  court.  At  the  next  town-meeting  the  committee  reported,  recit 
ing  their  grievances,  and  declaring  that  the  right  to  life,  liberty,  and 
property  must  be  defended,  if  necessary,  by  arms.  Then  Samuel  Adams 
moved  for  a  new  committee  to  correspond  with  those  to  be  raised  in 
other  towns,  and  the  union  of  the  American  colonies  was  founded. 
Beginning  in  the  hamlets  of  New  England,  it  was  destined  to  cover 
a  continent.  The  towns  rapidly  fell  in,  and  the  spirit  of  opposition 
spread,  excited  by  the  news  that  orders  had  come  to  send  the  destroy 
ers  of  the  Gaspee  to  England  for  trial. 

When  the  general  court  of  Massachusetts  came  together  at  the  open 
ing  of  the  new  year,  Hutchinson  saw  fit  in  his  speech  to  renew 
the  discussion  of  the  supremacy  of  Parliament,  arguing  that 
there  was  no  middle  ground  between  submission  and  independence, 
but  the  Governor  was  dealing  with  abler  men  than  himself.  Adams 
and  Hawley  eagerly  embraced  the  issue,  and  the  House  replied  to  the 
Governor  that  the  source  of  trouble  was  clearly  in  taxation,  and  de 
duced  from  his  own  premises  the  right  to  independence.  In  Rhode  Isl 
and  the  royal  commission  met  to  inquire  into  the  affair  of  the  Gaspee; 
but  the  chief -justice  refused  to  allow  the  offenders  to  be  arrested  for 
trial  in  England,  and  the  royal  commission  adjourned  without  acting. 
The  news  of  these  events  spread  southward,  and  met  with  warm  ap 
proval  when  the  Burgesses  of  Virginia  came  together ;  and  Dabney 
Carr,  supported  by  Patrick  Henry  and  Richard  Henry  Lee,  introduced 
and  carried  through  a  series  of  resolutions  in  favor  of  a  system  of  cor 
respondence  among  the  colonies.  Union  was  far  advanced  when  it  re 
ceived  the  adhesion  of  the  great  colony  of  Virginia,  whose  resolutions 
were  warmly  received  everywhere,  but  above  all  in  Massachusetts ;  the 
other  New  England  colonies  came  at  once  into  line,  and  the  northern 
and  southern  groups  were  firmly  united.  The  action  of  Virginia  was 
more  ominous  to  British  rule  than  anything  that  had  yet  happened ; 
and  in  Massachusetts  fuel  was  added  to  the  fire  of  popular  resistance  by 
the  publication  of  the  letters  of  Hutchinson  and  Oliver  to  the  minis 
try.  These  documents,  which  Franklin,  by  means  even  now  not  fully 
known,  had  succeeded  in  obtaining,  were  full  of  deadly  hostility  to 
the  province  and  its  chartered  liberties,  and  led  to  a  petition  for  the 


486  HISTORY  OF  THE 

removal  of  their  authors,  and  to  an  outburst  of  anger  before  which 
Hutchinson  quailed  and  desired  to  resign. 

While  these  events  were  transpiring,  the  untiring  efforts  of  Samuel 
Adams  to  bring  about  a  Congress  and  cement  union  received  a  fresh 
stimulus  from  the  action  of  the  ministry.  The  East  India  Company 
was  in  difficulties,  and  Lord  North  authorized  them  to  export  tea  to 
America,  agreeing  to  allow  a  drawback  equal  to  the  whole  duty.  The 
news  of  this  determination  aroused  the  deepest  indignation  in  the 
colonies ;  for  not  only  was  the  principle  of  taxation  to  be  maintained, 
but  the  tea  which  carried  the  principle  with  it  was  to  be  forced  upon 
them.  The  consignments  were  already  on  their  way,  when  the  citi 
zens  of  Philadelphia  came  together,  denied  the  right  of  Parliament  to 
tax  them,  condemned  the  duty  on  tea,  declared  all  who  took  part  in 
its  importation  enemies  of  the  country,  and  forced  the  agents  of  the 
East  India  Company  to  resign.  In  Charleston  there  was  a  like  spirit 
manifested,  and  in  New  York  the  Sons  of  Liberty  made  every  disposi 
tion  to  resist  the  landing  of  the  tea,  and  the  agents  resigned.  But  the 
question  was  to  be  decided  in  Boston,  where  the  opposition  had  be 
gun,  and  where  the  consignees,  more  stubborn  than  elsewhere,  refused 
to  yield.  They  were  handed  over  by  the  town-meetings  to  the  com 
mittees  of  correspondence,  and  in  the  midst  of  the  excitement  the  tea- 
ships  arrived.  The  other  towns  began  to  move,  the  men  from  the 
country  poured  into  Boston,  and  town-meeting  succeeded  town-meet 
ing.  The  Council  refused  to  support  the  Governor,  who  talked  of  re 
tiring  to  the  fort,  while  every  hour  brought  tidings  of  the  support  of 
other  towns.  The  consignees  began  to  lose  heart.  They  offered  to  store 
the  teas,  and  await  instructions,  but  said  they  could  not  send  them 
back.  The  offer  was  refused.  In  vain  Hutchinson  strove  to  disperse 
the  meetings ;  the  whole  province  was  fast  rising  in  arms.  At  last 
Rotch,  the  owner  of  the  Dartmouth,  gave  way,  and  applied  for  a  clear 
ance,  which  the  officers  of  the  customs  refused.  There  lay  the  ships, 
guarded  night  and  day,  and  no  tea  was  landed.  The  time  was  running 
out ;  in  a  few  days  the  tea  would  be  forfeit  to  the  Crown,  and  would 
be  landed  by  the  officers  of  customs.  Men-of-war  were  stationed  to 
prevent  their  departure,  and  they  could  not  pass  the  fort  except  with 
the  Governor's  permit.  On  the  sixteenth  of  December  the  crisis  was 
reached.  Seven  thousand  men  were  gathered  in  town-meeting,  and 
Rotch  was  sent  to  Milton  to  ask  Hutchinson  for  a  pass.  While  he 
was  gone  the  meeting  voted  that  the  tea  should  not  be  landed.  The 
day  wore  slowly  away,  and  when  Rotch  returned  to  announce  that  the 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  487 

Governor  refused  the  pass,  night  had  fallen.  It  was  another  of  the 
dramatic  scenes  in  American  history — another  turning-point  in  the 
preparation  for  revolution,  and  again  Samuel  Adams  was  the  central 
figure.  Rising  slowly  in  the  dimly  lighted  church,  he  said,  simply  and 
solemnly,  "  This  meeting  can  do  nothing  more  to  save  the  country." 
There  was  a  wild  war-whoop  outside,  and  a  band  of  men  disguised  as 
Indians  rushed  through  the  streets,  boarded  the  ships,  and  in  three 
hours  the  tea  was  floating  in  Boston  harbor.  The  American  Revolu 
tion  had  begun.  In  every  colony  the  destruction  of  the  tea  at  Boston 
met  with  warm  approval.  In  Philadelphia  the  tea-ship  was  compelled 
to  return  with  her  cargo  intact;  and  in  Charleston,  where  it  became  for 
feit  to  the  government  and  was  landed,  it  mouldered  in  damp  cellars. 
When  the  news  of  the  sixteenth  of  December  reached  England,  the 
ministry  were  engaged  in  severing  another  link  in  the  chain 
which  bound  the  colonies  to  the  parent  country.  If  there 
was  any  one  man  who  could  have  checked  the  course  cf  revolution, 
it  was  Benjamin  Franklin,  wise,  famous,  and  popular,  lie  was  not  as 
yet  an  enemy  to  England,  but  still  hoped  for  peace  and  reconcilia 
tion.  It  became  his  duty  to  present  the  petition  of  Massachusetts  for 
the  removal  of  Hutchinson  and  Oliver  on  account  of  their  misconduct, 
and  of  the  letters  which  Franklin  had  obtained  and  published.  The 
appearance  of  those  letters  had  led  to  a  duel,  and  had  caused  great 
anger  against  Franklin ;  so  that  when  the  petition  came  up  for  hear 
ing  before  the  Council,  he  was  made  the  target  of  a  violent  attack  by 
Wedderburn,  who  appeared  for  the  accused,  and  acted  as  if  Franklin 
was  on  trial.  The  great  American  was  abused,  and  the  petition  con 
temptuously  rejected.  The  English  ministry  esteemed  it  wise  to  in 
sult  and  outrage  the  strongest  man  in  the  colonies,  and  receive  with 
hearty  applause  the  coarse  and  powerful  invective  which  helped  to  dis 
member  the  empire.  It  was  part  and  parcel  of  the  ignorant  arrogance 
which  began  with  Grenville,  and  ended  in  the  loss  of  thirteen  colonies. 
In  this  condition  of  the  public  temper  the  resistance  of  Boston  was 
not  likely  to  be  pardoned.  It  was  not  too  late  to  retreat  and  retain 
the  colonies ;  but  there  was  no  one  in  England  who  had  the  power 
and  the  desire  for  such  a  course.  King  and  people  were  thoroughly 
in  sympathy,  and  determined  to  punish  the  rebellious  colonists.  A 
series  of  measures  ingeniously  adapted  to  cause  civil  war  were  rapidly 
passed  through  Parliament,  and  were  in  part  opposed  only  by  a  few 
far-seeing  men,  and  by  some  of  the  old  Whig  party  of  Rockingham. 
While  the  people  of  Massachusetts,  well  knowing  the  desperate  strug- 


488  HISTORY  OF  THE 

gle  in  which  they  were  engaged,  impeached  Chief-justice  Oliver  for 
taking  his  salary  from  the  Crown  ;  and  while,  by  the  hand  of  Samuel 
Adams,  they  sent  their  last  instructions  to  Franklin,  Lord  North  in 
troduced  and  carried  through  without  objection  the  Boston  Port  Bill, 
which  closed  the  port  of  Boston  until  the  East  India  Company  was 
indemnified,  and  the  King  satisfied  of  the  submission  of  the  rebellious 
town.  General  Gage  was  appointed  civil  Governor,  and  sent  with  four 
regiments  to  carry  out  the  provisions  of  the  bill,  and  arrest  and  bring  to 
judgment  the  patriot  leaders,  among  whom  Adams  was  foremost.  The 
next  in  the  series  of  measures  was  far  graver  than  the  Port  Bill,  and 
struck  at  the  political  life  of  every  colony  alike,  for  this  second  act 
altered  by  will  of  Parliament  alone  the  charter  of  Massachusetts,  and  it 
provided  for  the  destruction  of  town-meetings,  for  the  appointment 
of  the  Council,  and  also  of  the  Sheriffs,  into  whose  hands  was  given 
the  selection  of  the  juries.  To  the  credit  of  England  it  can  be  said  that 
this  witless  piece  of  revengeful  oppression  did  not  pass  unchallenged. 
It  was  opposed  by  Burke,  Fox,  and  Conway,  and  by  most  of  the  Rock- 
ingham  Whigs,  and  was  only  carried  through  after  long  and  strenuous 
debates  in  both  Houses.  Such  opposition  can  hardly  be  wondered  at, 
for  the  English  Parliament  has  passed  but  few  measures  which  were 
the  direct  cause  of  such  mighty  results.  The  act  to  alter  the  charter 
of  Massachusetts  firmly  united  the  American  colonies,  and  divided  the 
empire  of  England.  The  third  measure  of  the  ministry  transferred  the 
trial  of  any  soldier  or  Crown  officer  indicted  for  murder  or  other  capi 
tal  offence  in  Massachusetts  to  Nova  Scotia  or  England.  A  few  bold 
men  raised  their  voices  against  a  bill  which  gave  immunity  to  soldiers 
in  a  defenceless  colony ;  but  their  warning  was  unheeded,  and  the  act 
passed  rapidly  with  large  majorities.  A  fourth  act  provided  for  quar 
tering  troops  in  Boston ;  and  a  fifth,  known  as  the  Quebec  Act,  dealt 
with  the  recent  conquests  of  England,  gave  toleration  to  the  Roman 
Catholics,  erected  an  arbitrary  government,  and  extended  the  bounds 
of  the  new  province  to  the  Ohio,  absorbing  the  territory  of  the  old 
colonies,  and  threatening  the  possessions  of  Virginia  and  Pennsyl 
vania.  Something  had  been  done  to  anger  every  colony ;  but  the 
weight  of  the  blow  fell  upon  Massachusetts,  in  whose  fate  every  prov 
ince  beheld  what  might  with  equal  fitness  come  to  them. 

Massachusetts  received  the  news  in  ominous  silence,  but  with  no 
signs  of  yielding.  Samuel  Adams  and  his  friends  saw  what  was  coin 
ing,  but  they  devoted  themselves  to  renewing  the  non -importation 
agreements,  and  sent  messengers  forth  to  ask  for  a  general  suspension 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  489 

of  trade.  The  Port  Bill  and  the  Charter  Act  roused  the  continent 
in  support  of  Massachusetts.  New  York  moved  first,  and  the  Sous  of 
Liberty  wrote  to  Massachusetts  and  proposed  a  general  congress.  The 
old  committee  dissolved,  and  a  new  one  was  formed  with  many  Tories 
among  the  members,  but  controlled  by  the  moderate  men,  who  finally 
came  forward  under  the  lead  of  John  Jay.  Connecticut  adopted  a 
declaration  of  rights;  Rhode  Island  demanded  a  general  congress. 
In  Pennsylvania  the  moderate  party,  under  the  guidance  of  John 
Dickinson,  had  the  upper  hand.  They  had  little  sympathy  for  Mas 
sachusetts  ;  they  dreaded  to  become  involved  in  her  fate,  but  they 
favored  a  congress,  and  opposed  a  suspension  of  trade.  In  the  absence 
of  Franklin,  Mifflin  and  the  patriot  party  made  slight  headway.  In 
Virginia,  when  the  Burgesses  met,  a  day  of  fasting  was  appointed  when 
the  Port  Bill  went  into  operation.  Whereupon  Dunmore  dissolved  the 
Assembly,  and  the  Burgesses  met  in  convention,  voted  for  an  annual 
congress,  and  elected  a  committee  of  correspondence.  The  action  of 
the  great  southern  province  was  decisive,  and  the  other  colonies  fell 
quickly  into  line,  demanding  in  most  cases,  from  South  Carolina  to 
New  Jersey,  a  suspension  of  trade  and  a  general  congress.  The  effect 
of  the  penal  measures  in  suddenly  advancing  the  conflict  with  England 
is  strongly  shown  by  the  rapid  development  of  parties.  Many  of 
the  aristocracy  and  of  the  wealthy,  and  all  timid,  conservative,  or  in 
terested  persons  began  to  range  themselves  on  the  side  of  the  Crown. 
Hitherto  there  had  been  substantial  unanimity,  but  men  were  now 
compelled  to  choose  their  side ;  the  dread  of  disturbance  and  of  war 
began  to  be  felt,  and  party  lines  were  sharply  drawn.  In  New  York 
the  Tories  fought  for  possession  of  the  committee,  and  the  contest 
was  bitter  and  doubtful.  In  Pennsylvania  the  Crown  party  had  the 
upper  hand,  and  were  supported  by  the  moderate  patriots.  In  Vir 
ginia  the  patriot  party  was  in  complete  control,  for  the  ruling  aristoc 
racy  was  of  one  mind  with  the  people  in  opposition  to  England,  and 
the  same  held  true  of  the  other  southern  colonies,  although  there  was 
a  vigorous  opposition.  The  New  England  colonies  were  wholly  on 
the  patriotic  side,  except  in  Massachusetts,  where  the  Crown  party 
rallied  in  the  coast  towns,  and  sent  addresses  to  Hutchinson  on  his 
departure.  But  this  was  all  they  could  do.  The  power  rested  with 
Adams,  Warren,  Hancock,  and  the  rest,  and  in  Massachusetts  the 
decisive  steps  had  to  be  taken.  The  conflict  had  opened  there,  and 
there  the  revolution  was  to  begin. 

Gage  was  already  at  odds  with  the  town  of  Boston  and  the  com 


490  HISTORY  OF  THE 

inittees  when  the  general  court  came  together  in  Salera,  where,  after  a 
quarrel  over  the  address,  in  which  Hutchinson  was  censured,  the  House, 
which  had  been  worked  up  to  the  required  point  by  Adams,  met  on 
the  seventeenth  of  June — a  day  soon  to  be  made  memorable  in  his 
tory.  The  doors  were  locked,  as  they  had  been  in  a  more  famous  but 
not  more  momentous  Parliament  by  the  forefathers  of  these  men  who 
now  came  together  in  the  little  New  England  seaport.  While  Gage's 
messenger  knocked  vainly  at  the  door  and  read  to  the  crowd  a  procla 
mation  dissolving  the  Assembly,  the  representatives  of  Massachusetts 
fixed  the  first  of  September  as  the  day,  and  Philadelphia  as  the  place 
for  the  general  congress,  and  then  chose  Bowdoin,  Gushing,  Paine,  and 
John  and  Samuel  Adams  as  delegates.  While  they  were  thus  taking 
the  last  decisive  step  toward  union,  the  people  of  Boston  gathered  in 
town-meeting,  with  John  Adams  in  the  chair,  and  voted  not  to  indem 
nify  the  East  India  Company.  Lord  North's  coercive  measures,  backed 
by  fleets  and  armies,  had  failed  miserably,  and  Boston  in  her  hour  of 
trial  received  sympathy  and  generous  aid  from  all  parts  of  the  conti 
nent  ;  but  the  material  and  pecuniary  suffering  was  not  the  worst  that 
befell  the  town  and  province.  The  mandamus  councillors  and  the 
salaried  judges  were  no  longer  a  fear,  they  were  a  terrible  reality,  and 
holding  office.  The  regulating  act  was  being  enforced  in  their  midst. 
In  all  directions  Lhere  were  meetings,  and  thousands  gathered  to  force 
the  councillors  from  their  places  and  to  close  the  courts.  Some  of 
the  councillors  resigned,  and  those  who  held  out  dared  not  leave  Bos 
ton  and  the  protection  of  the  troops.  The  courts  were  at  a  stand 
still,  and  the  militia  began  to  drill,  while  in  every  village  companies  of 
Minute-men  were  formed,  and  county  conventions  were  held,  and  reso 
lutions  passed  breathing  independence  and  resistance.  Gage  began 
to  clamor  for  more  troops  to  fortify  Boston,  and  to  seize  provincial 
stores  and  gunpowder,  while  threats  were  heard  of  letting  loose  the 
Indians  upon  the  rebellious  colonists.  The  storm  clouds  were  coming 
very  near  in  Massachusetts. 

Meanwhile  the  other  colonies  had  rapidly  responded  to  the  call  of 
Massachusetts,  and  chosen  delegates  to  the  Congress.  In  New  York 
and  Pennsylvania  the  moderate  party  and  the  Tories  prevailed  in  the 
choice  of  delegates,  but  elsewhere  the  patriots  carried  the  day.  The 
journey  of  the  delegates  of  Massachusetts  was  very  like  a  triumphal 
progress,  and  when  they  met  their  brethren  in  Carpenter's  Hall  on  the 
fifth  of  September,  the  representatives  of  eleven  provinces  answered  to 
their  names.  Peyton  Randolph,  of  Virginia,  was  chosen  President,  and 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  491 

Charles  Thomson,  Secretary.  Among  the  delegates  on  the  floor  were 
George  Washington  and  Patrick  Henry,  John  and  Samuel  Adams,  Jay, 
Gadsden,  and  Rutledge.  It  was  a  gathering  of  able  and  sober-mind 
ed  men,  and  England  would  have  done  well  to  heed  what  they  said. 
At  the  outset,  in  the  very  dawn  of  American  union,  the  standard  of 
State  rights  and  separatism  was  raised,  and  firmly  planted.  After 
much  debate,  and  despite  the  eloquence  of  Henry,  it  was  agreed  that 
the  voting  should  be  by  colonies;  and  the  principle  found  practical 
expression  in  the  exemption  of  rice  from  the  non-exportation  agree 
ment,  out  of  deference  to  South  Carolina.  True  to  the  traditions  and 
habits  of  their  race,  the  Congress  decided  to  rest  their  case  upon  his 
toric,  and  not  upon  natural  rights.  In  October  they  voted  to  sustain 
Massachusetts  in  her  resistance;  they  signed  agreements  to  neither 
import  nor  export ;  they  passed  a  resolve  against  the  slave-trade,  ap 
pointed  a  second  congress,  to  which  Nova  Scotia  and  Canada  were 
invited ;  and  finally  gave  to  the  world  the  fruits  of  their  deliberations 
in  a  declaration  of  rights,  an  address  to  the  people  of  Great  Britain, 
drawn  by  Jay,  and  an  address  to  the  King,  drawn  by  Dickinson. 
These  remarkable  State  papers  were  eminently  moderate,  fair,  and 
conciliatory.  The  recital  of  grievances  went  back  no  farther  than  the 
year  1763,  and  the  concession  of  the  right  to  regulate  external  trade 
was  introduced  and  defended  by  such  an  ardent  patriot  as  John  Ad 
ams.  The  tone  of  the  addresses,  drawn  as  they  were  by  two  con 
spicuously  moderate  men,  was  manly  and  direct,  but  thoroughly  and 
honestly  loyal  and  eager  for  reconciliation.  The  issues  involving  the 
right  of  taxation  and  the  right  to  preserve  their  governments  un 
changed  were  firmly  and  strongly  met,  and  the  Congress  opened  the 
way  for  an  adjustment,  which  would  have  removed  every  difficulty. 
Warning  was  not  wanting  elsewhere.  The  general  court  of  Massa 
chusetts  became  a  provincial  congress,  Connecticut  began  to  arm,  the 
Marylanders  burned  a  tea-ship,  the  close  corporation  known  as  an  as 
sembly  in  New  York  refused  to  consider  the  doings  of  the  first  Con 
gress,  or  choose  delegates  to  the  next,  and  the  people,  filled  with  indig 
nation,  were  thrown  on  their  own  resources.  Everywhere  the  Con 
gress  received  full  support  and  approbation,  and  even  in  Georgia, 
weak  and  divided,  the  spirit  of  resistance  broke  out,  and  a  delegate 
was  chosen  in  one  parish.  The  suspension  of  trade  was  rigidly  en 
forced.  The  royal  governments  were  dropping  to  pieces,  the  colonies 
were  arming,  and  with  the  flame  of  revolution  flashing  in  their  eyes 
the  new  Parliament  of  England  came  together. 


492  HISTORY  OF  THE 

The  English  people  fully  sustained  the  King  and  his  ministers,  who 
met  Parliament  with  stronger  majorities  than  ever  before.  The  pro 
posals  of  the  Congress  were  rejected,  the  broad  and  statesman -like 
measures  of  Chatham  for  adjustment  and  conciliation  were  cast  aside 
with  contempt,  New  England  was  shut  out  from  the  fisheries, 
Massachusetts  was  declared  to  be  in  rebellion,  and  preparations 
were  made  for  war.  Lord  Howe  was  sent  out  in  command  of  a 
fleet,  and  with  offers  of  compromise,  which  Lord  North,  in  weak  good 
nature,  wished  to  make.  He  proposed  that  if  the  colonies  would  tax 
themselves  to  the  satisfaction  of  Parliament,  Parliament  would  be  con 
tent  to  regulate  trade,  forgetting  that  to  people  whose  governments 
were  being  swept  away,  such  a  proposition  was  childish.  But  while 
England  made  ready  to  crush  out  opposition  by  force,  revolution  with 
hurrying  steps  came  nearer  and  nearer.  Gage  made  an  abortive  attempt 
to  seize  stores  at  Salem ;  but  the  prize  was  removed,  and  the  troops 
came  back  discomfited.  Dunmore  seized  powder  in  Virginia,  and  was 
forced  by  the  people,  headed  by  Henry,  to  give  it  up.  Sooner  or  later 
such  attempts  as  these  would  lead  to  fighting.  The  day  of  battle 
could  not  be  long  deferred,  and  it  came  at  last  in  Massachusetts.  The 
events  of  the  famous  nineteenth  of  April  have  been  told  again  and 
again.  They  have  employed  the  art  of  the  poet  and  the  historian, 
they  are  commemorated  by  the  pencil  and  the  chisel.  To  every 
American  all  the  hurrying  scenes  rise  up  in  sharp  distinctness.  The 
lights  flash  from  the  steeple  of  the  Old  North  Church,  the  horsemen 
spur  out  into  the  darkness  and  ride  through  the  Middlesex  villages 
calling  the  farmers  to  arms,  while  fast  behind  them  come  the  British 
soldiers.  In  the  gray  dawn  they  were  at  Lexington  faced  by  some 
seventy  Minute- men,  hastily  summoned  to  the  field.  Some  one  fired, 
no  matter  who ;  the  troops  poured  in  a  close  and  deadly  volley,  there 
was  a  scattering  return,  and,  as  the  smoke  rolled  away,  it  disclosed 
seven  killed  and  nine  wounded  among  the  Americans.  The  colonists 
had  faced  the  troops,  and  blood  had  been  shed.  The  fatal  step  had 
been  taken,  and  civil  war  had  begun.  On  the  troops  pushed  to  Con 
cord,  whence  the  stores  had  been  removed,  and  where  but  little  damage 
was  done.  A  party  of  soldiers  advanced  to  the  bridge,  and  were  met  by 
the  Minute-men  of  Acton  and  Concord.  The  British  fired  with  effect ; 
there  was  a  moment's  hesitation,  and  the  Americans  returned  the  fire. 
Two  of  the  English  fell,  others  were  wounded,  and  they  fell  back,  leav 
ing  the  Americans  in  possession  of  the  bridge.  The  battle  of  Con 
cord  had  been  fought.  Not  only  had  blood  been  shed,  but  the  colo- 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  493 

nists  had  resisted.  There  was  a  pause  while  the  British  moved  out  of 
the  village,  and  then  the  Minute -men  began  to  pour  in  and  attack 
them  on  their  march.  The  fire  of  the  Americans  along  the  road  was 
scattering,  but  galling  and  deadly,  so  that  the  retreat  was  quickened, 
and  was  almost  a  rout,  when  the  tired  men  met  Lord  Percy  with  re- 
enforcements  and  artillery  at  Lexington.  Then  the  chase  began  once 
more ;  faster  and  faster  came  the  militia,  and  more  and  more  soldiers 
fell  beneath  their  shots.  It  was  after  sunset  when  Lord  Percy's  hunt 
ed  and  beaten  army  crossed  Charlestown  Neck  and  reached  a  place 
of  safety. 

The  news  spread  like  wildfire.  From  all  New  England  the  militia 
hastened  to  Boston,  and  the  King's  army  was  soon  besieged  by  twenty 
thousand  men.  The  clash  of  arms  and  the  blood  shed  in  battle  star 
tled  the  colonies  north  and  south,  and  everywhere  the  people  rose 
ready  for  war.  In  May,  the  hardy  and  untamed  settlers  of  the  Green 
Mountains,  under  the  lead  of  Ethan  Allen,  captured  by  surprise  Ticon- 
deroga  and  Crown  Point.  In  June,  the  leaders  of  the  scattered  forces 
around  Boston,  where  there  had  been  some  slight  skirmishing,  resolved 
to  anticipate  the  plans  of  the  British  by  taking  sudden  possession  of 
the  high  ground  near  Charlestown,  and  thus  commanding  the  town 
and  shipping.  On  the  night  of  the  sixteenth,  Colonel  Prescott,  with 
about  a  thousand  men,  crossed  Charlestown  Neck,  and  in  the  few  hours 
between  midnight  and  sunrise  threw  up  an  earthwork  on  Breed's  Hill. 
At  daybreak  the  men-of-war  opened  fire  on  the  redoubt,  and  the  bat 
teries  on  Copp's  Hill  followed.  At  noon  over  two  thousand  English 
were  on  their  way  to  take  the  hill.  Prescott's  forces  were  reduced, 
and  he  received  neither  aid  nor  re-enforcements  until  the  arrival  of 
Stark  with  the  New  Hampshire  men,  who  joined  those  from  Connec 
ticut,  posted  by  Prescott  at  a  rail  fence  heaped  with  hay  to  defend 
the  flank.  Setting  fire  to  Charlestown,  and  under  cover  of  a  heavy 
cannonade,  the  British  advanced  against  the  intrenchments.  Twice  they 
were  driven  back  with  slaughter  from  the  redoubt  and  the  rail  fence, 
mowed  down  by  the  heavy  and  concentrated  fire  of  the  Americans. 
The  third  time  they  were  rallied  with  difficulty,  and  came  on  in  silence. 
They  were  received  with  another  deadly  volley,  but  they  still  pressed 
on.  The  powder  of  the  Americans  was  exhausted,  and  their  fire 
slackened  and  ceased.  Without  bayonets,  the  provincials  fought  with 
clubbed  muskets,  yielding  inch  by  inch,  until  at  last  Prescott  gave 
the  word  to  retreat ;  and  then  slowly,  and  in  good  order,  covered  by  the 
brave  band  at  the  rail  fence,  the  Americans  fell  back  and  left  the  Brit- 


494  HISTORY  OF  TEE 

ish  in  possession  of  the  hard-fought  field.  At  the  last  moment,  Joseph 
Warren,  eminent  as  a  patriot  leader,  and  present  only  as  a  volunteer, 
was  killed  at  the  redoubt.  The  British  won  the  victory  and  gained  a 
hill.  They  lost  over  a  thousand  men  in  killed  and  wounded,  of  whom 
no  less  than  eighty-three  were  officers,  while  the  American  loss  did  not 
reach  five  hundred.  Covered  by  wretched  intrenchments,  the  colo 
nists  had  twice  repulsed  with  slaughter  the  best  English  troops,  fully 
equipped  and  perfectly  disciplined.  They  had  completely  crippled 
Gage,  and  the  British  had  merely  the  ground  they  stood  on  to  show 
as  a  trophy  of  the  bloody  battle.  The  delusion  that  Americans  would 
not  fight  was  at  an  end ;  and  this  made  the  defeat  at  Bunker  Hill  of 
more  value  than  many  victories. 

Nearly  a  month  had  passed  after  the  fight  at  Lexington  and  Con 
cord,  when  the  second  Continental  Congress  assembled  in  Philadelphia 
on  the  tenth  of  May.  There  were  the  same  leaders,  but  the  strength 
of  the  moderate  and  Tory  parties  had  declined,  and  at  the  same  time 
the  attitude  of  Congress  was  one  of  indecision.  They  found  them 
selves  confronted  by  the  gravest  issue,  for  the  choice  between  war 
and  submission  had  become  imperative.  They  would  not  yield ;  they 
dreaded  to  advance.  With  reluctance  they  permitted  the  retention  of 
Ticonderoga,  and  they  advised  New  York  not  to  oppose  the  landing 
of  troops,  but  to  prevent  the  erection  of  fortifications.  Jay  moved 
a  second  petition  to  the  King,  and  long  debates  ensued.  Slowly  the 
Congress  was  drawn  along  by  the  current  of  events ;  hanging  back 
at  every  step,  they  advised  Massachusetts  not  to  set  up  an  indepen 
dent  government,  and  they  would  do  nothing  for  the  other  colonies, 
where  the  Crown  governments  were  rapidly  falling  to  pieces.  They 
were  gradually  forced  into  a  policy  of  defensive  warfare,  inasmuch  as 
war  was  a  hard  reality  which  could  not  be  overlooked,  for  the  skir 
mishing  went  on  outside,  and  there  were  continual  affrays  between 
Americans  and  British  both  by  land  and  sea.  In  one  breath  the  Con 
gress,  which  had  just  placed  at  its  head  the  proscribed  traitor,  John 
Hancock,  advised  the  colonies  to  prepare  for  defence,  and  in  the  next 
voted  a  second  petition  to  the  King.  The  Governor  of  Virginia  took 
refuge  on  board  a  man-of-war,  and  royal  government  was  at  an  end. 
Massachusetts  asked  for  a  commander-in-chief,  and  John  Adams  urged 
the  appointment  of  Washington.  Still,  Congress,  full  of  loyalty,  eager 
to  avert  war,  and  dreading  rebellion,  hesitated ;  but  the  pressure  of 
events  could  not  be  resisted.  It  was  voted  to  raise  money  to  buy  gun 
powder,  the  organization  of  the  Continental  army  was  begun,  and  on 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  495 

June  fifteenth  George  Washington  was  elected  commander-in-chief. 
On  the  following  day  he  appeared  in  Congress,  and,  with  a  modesty 
as  fine  as  it  was  simple  and  sincere,  accepted  the  heavy  burden  im 
posed  upon  him.  Even  while  the  delegates  were  pledging  themselves 
to  sustain  Washington,  Prescott  was  preparing  for  his  march  to  Breed's 
Hill,  and  the  clouds  of  war  were  gathering  very  fast  about  the  hesi 
tating  Congress,  who  went  on  with  half  measures,  published  an  address 
justifying  their  taking  up  arms,  sent  another  petition  to  the  King, 
and  on  the  first  of  August  adjourned  fqr  five  weeks. 

On  the  third  of  July  Washington  took  command  of  the  army.  He 
found  himself  at  the  head  of  a  horde  of  militia,  brave  and  patriotic, 
but  ill-armed,  undisciplined,  unorganized,  and  wanting  in  almost  every 
thing  necessary  for  successful  war.  As  the  summer  wore  away,  and 
autumn  and  winter  followed,  Washington  slowly,  and  in  the  face  of 
almost  inconceivable  difficulties,  brought  order  out  of  chaos,  and  gave 
strength  and  unity  to  his  raw  and  scattered  forces.  Gunpowder  fail 
ed,  large  bodies  of  the  militia  went  back  to  their  homes,  winter  set  in 
with  its  usual  severity,  but  still  Washington  moved  steadfastly  onward, 
drawing  his  lines  closer  and  closer  about  the  besieged  city.  Frequent 
skirmishes  accustomed  the  men  to  war ;  Knox  brought  the  cannon  of 
Ticonderoga  over  the  snow  to  Boston  before  the  spring  opened,  and 
then  Washington  was  ready  to  strike.  The  works  had  been  brought 
nearer  and  nearer  to  the  town,  until  at  last,  from  Dorchester  Heights, 
the  bombardment  was  begun.  The  British,  who  had  come  to  conquer, 
were  helpless,  and  word  came  to  Washington  that,  if  Howe  was  permit 
ted  to  embark  unmolested,  the  town  would  be  spared.  The  proposal 
was  agreed  to ;  the  British  took  to  their  ships,  and  sailed  to 
Halifax ;  and  on  the  seventeenth  of  March  the  American  forces 
entered  the  town,  and  the  siege  of  Boston  was  at  an  end.  While  Wash 
ington  was  slowly  and  surely  investing  Boston,  and  forcing  the  Brit 
ish  from  the  soil  of  New  England,  other  movements  were  in  progress, 
promising  more  brilliant  results,  as  developed  by  the  capture  of  Ti 
conderoga,  and  by  the  successful  partisan  warfare  of  Allen  and  Ar 
nold  in  the  region  of  the  lakes.  An  expedition  for  the  conquest  of 
Canada,  under  the  command  of  Schuyler,  started  from  Ticonderoga. 
Schuyler's  ill-health  soon  left  General  Montgomery  at  the  head  of  the 
army,  and  for  two  months  he  persisted  in  the  siege  of  the  fort  at  St. 
John's,  contending  with  every  possible  difficulty,  from  lack  of  supplies 
to  insubordination  and  inefficiency  among  the  soldiers  and  officers. 
Allen  made  a  foolhardy  attempt  upon  Montreal,  and  was  taken  pris- 


496  HISTORY  OF  THE 

oner;  but  Montgomery's  gallantry  and  persistence  finally  prevailed 
over  every  obstacle.  The  forts  of  Chambly  and  St.  John's  were  taken, 
and  the  Americans  pushed  northward  and  took  Montreal,  whence  Caril 
lon  had  retreated  to  Quebec.  Soon  after  Montgomery  started  from 
Ticonderoga,  another  expedition,  also  aimed  against  Quebec,  left  Bos 
ton  in  the  early  days  of  autumn.  Commanded  by  Arnold,  this  force 
was  to  make  its  way  through  the  wilderness  of  Maine,  surprise  Que 
bec,  and  join  Montgomery.  After  two  months  of  terrible  privation 
and  suffering  by  cold,  hunger,  and  disease,  Arnold,  with  sadly  depleted 
forces,  reached  the  St.  Lawrence.  Precious  time  had  been  wasted, 
and  a  surprise  attempted  by  Arnold  with  his  weakened  forces  came 
to  nothing.  Carleton  reached  Quebec  with  his  troops  from  Montreal, 
and  soon  after  Montgomery  joined  Arnold.  In  the  dead  waste  of  a 
Canadian  winter,  with  the  ground  deeply  frozen,  regular  approaches 
were  out  of  the  question ;  and  an  assault  was  therefore  agreed  upon, 
which  was  made  in  the  midst  of  a  storm,  just  as  the  year  was  closing. 
Desperate  as  it  was,  it  came  within  a  hair's-breadth  of  success,  and 
failed  only  through  the  death  of  Montgomery,  who  was  killed  at  the 
head  of  his  advancing  men.  Arnold,  with  another  column,  penetrated 
Quebec,  but  was  wounded,  and  carried  from  the  field.  Morgan,  of  Vir 
ginia,  pushed  on  with  the  men,  and,  after  a  night  of  fierce  street-fight 
ing,  was  compelled  to  surrender,  being  cooped  up  in  the  narrow  streets, 
and  with  no  aid  from  without.  After  this,  the  winter  wore  slowly 
and  uneventfully  away,  until  in  March  General  Wooster  arrived  with 
troops,  and  took  command.  He  effected  nothing,  and  factious  dis 
order  heightened  the  difficulties  of  the  disheartened  army ;  so  that, 
when  General  Thomas  took  the  command,  he  was  forced  to  retreat  to 
the  Sorel,  suffering  heavy  losses  inflicted  by  the  garrison  of  Quebec. 
At  all  other  points  the  Americans  were  beaten  as  the  spring  advanced, 
and  Sullivan,  who  succeeded  Thomas,  was  just  in  time  to  encourage  an 
expedition  which  was  badly  beaten  at  Point  du  Lac,  and  then  fall  back 
to  Ticonderoga.  The  Canada  campaign  just  missed  success.  Full  of 
bright  hope  and  brilliant  promise,  and  marked  with  the  utmost  gal 
lantry  on  the  part  of  the  leaders,  it  resulted  in  nothing  but  ruinous 
disaster;  and  the  only  gain  to  the  colonists  was  the  hard  experience 
of  unsuccessful  war. 

Meanwhile  Parliament,  in  full  accord  with  the  King,  was  ready  to 
push  hostilities.  The  army  was  raised  to  forty  thousand  men,  the  fleets 
were  increased,  large  bodies  of  mercenaries  were  bought  of  the  misera 
ble  princes  of  Germany,  extensive  campaigns  were  planned,  and  prepa- 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  497 

rations  were  made  to  strike  the  colonies  at  various  points.  The  value 
of  New  York  as  a  military  position  was  obvious  to  both  English  and 
Americans,  and  the  latter  made  haste  to  prevent  its  falling  into  the 
hands  of  their  enemies.  Domestic  dissensions  were  already  running 
high,  and  the  conflict  between  Tories  and  patriots,  fomented  by  the 
new  Governor,  Tryon,  became  more  and  more  bitter.  The  Tories  con 
trolled  the  government,  and  struggled  for  the  committee ;  but  the 
patriots  were  backed  by  the  people,  and  under  the  lead  of  Sears  de 
stroyed  the  Tory  press,  and  brought  many  of  the  supporters  of  the 
Crown  to  reason  by  no  gentle  means.  But  all  this  led  to  nothing, 
until  the  arrival  of  General  Charles  Lee,  who  went  energetically  to 
work  to  fortify  the  city,  a  course  vigorously  pursued  by  his  successor, 
Lord  Stirling ;  and  as  soon  as  Washington  was  released  by  the  evacu 
ation  of  Boston,  he  pushed  his  army  forward,  arriving  in  New  York 
himself,  with  all  his  forces,  by  the  middle  of  April,  when  the  city  rap 
idly  assumed  the  appearance  of  a  fortified  camp. 

In  the  south,  meantime,  Dunmore  had  failed  to  excite  servile  insur 
rection,  and  had  lost  his  hold  upon  Virginia ;  while  in  North  Carolina, 
Martin  strove  to  stir  up  civil  war,  and  in  a  proclamation  denounced  the 
rebels,  and  summoned  the  inhabitants  to  rally  about  the  standard  of 
the  King.  The  Highlanders  of  the  province,  and  many  of  the  Regu 
lators,  who  had  been  conciliated  by  Martin,  responded  to  the  call,  and 
marched  to  the  coast  with  nearly  a  thousand  men.  But  the  procla 
mation  had  brought  the  patriot  party  also  into  the  field.  They  met  the 
royalists  at  a  bridge  near  Wilmington,  where  they  repulsed  and  dis 
persed  them,  making  many  prisoners.  Martin  had  already  fled,  and  the 
cause  of  the  King  was  broken  in  North  Carolina,  and  not  revived  for 
four  years.  Against  South  Carolina  more  formidable  preparations  were 
made,  and  the  King  sent  seven  regiments  under  Clinton  and  Corn-. 
wallis,  and  a  fleet  under  Admiral  Parker,  to  reduce  Charleston.  Lee, 
who  was  in  charge  of  the  southern  department,  worked  with  his  usual 
energy,  but  the  glory  belongs  to  the  patriot  leaders.  A  fort  was 
hastily  constructed  on  Sullivan's  Island,  in  the  harbor,  and  put  in 
charge  of  Colonel  Moultrie ;  Gadsden,  on  James  Island,  defended  the 
approach  by  land,  while  the  city  itself  was  hastily  fortified.  On  the 
twenty-eighth  of  June  the  British  fleet  moved  up  the  channel,  and  for 
twelve  hours  poured  shot  and  shell  upon  Moultrie's  fort.  The  tough 
palmetto  resisted  their  shot;  the  Americans  stood  their  ground  un 
flinchingly,  and  returned  a  heavy  and  well-directed  fire,  while  the 
land-forces  were  repulsed  and  prevented  from  reaching  the  island. 


498  HISTORY  OF  THE 

After  a  prolonged  contest  the  British  withdrew.  Their  losses  had 
been  severe,  and,  giving  up  their  plans  of  capture,  they  returned  to 
New  York.  The  south  was  safe. 

But  while  the  South  Carolinians  were  driving  off  the  British  the 

great  crisis  in  the  existence  of  the  colonies  was  drawing  on. 
1775-  All  through  the  autumn,  winter,  and  spring,  with  offensive  and 

defensive  war  raging  around  them,  the  Continental  Congress 
had  been  hesitating  and  moving  forward  with  reluctant  pace.  It 
is  easy  to  see  how  much  might  have  been  gained  by  prompt,  deci 
sive  action,  by  throwing  off  at  once  the  bonds  of  the  mother  country, 
organizing  government,  and  adopting  a  vigorous  war  policy.  But  the 
Congress  of  the  colonies  was  a  body  of  law-abiding,  conservative  men, 
longing  to  bring  back  harmony,  and  not  plotting  independence.  They 
did  not  advance  a  step  until  England  had  gone  beyond  in  wrong-doing, 
and  they  acted  only  under  the  strongest  outside  pressure.  With  the 
outbreak  of  hostilities  the  spirit  of  independence  began  to  grow  rapid 
ly,  finding  expression  in  the  resolutions  of  towns,  and  then  of  counties, 
while  it  was  boldly  advocated  by  Paine  in  his  famous  pamphlet,  "  Com 
mon  Sense."  The  colonies  began  to  form  governments  of  their  own, 
and  declare  for  independence.  There  was  no  mistaking  the  drift  of 
public  sentiment,  which  every  day  grew  stronger  and  more  imperative. 
In  Congress  a  party  in  favor  of  independence  was  developed,  and  be 
gan  to  push  for  energetic  action  and  for  a  declared  rupture  with  Eng 
land,  while  the  measures  necessitated  by  war  urged  them  on  in  the  same 
direction.  Bills  of  credit  were  issued,  the  army  was  regulated,  nego 
tiations  were  opened  with  Canada,  and  plans  for  a  general  government 
were  discussed,  so  that  in  the  spring  the  independent  movement  had 
become  almost  irresistible,  although  Pennsylvania  hung  back,  and  New 
York  was  divided.  The  strength  of  the  moderate  party  was  in  the 
middle  colonies ;  but  Virginia  and  Massachusetts,  the  two  representa 
tive  provinces,  the  strongholds  of  the  opposing  political  forces  of  the 
country,  were  for  the  first  and  last  time  in  our  history  thoroughly 
united ;  and  before  their  combined  strength  the  timid  and  backward 
conservatism  of  Pennsylvania  was  powerless.  One  colony  after  an 
other  was  brought  into  line  and  joined  in  the  cry  for  independence ; 
even  in  Pennsylvania  the  popular  party  gained  the  control ;  and  Mary 
land  and  New  York,  the  latter  still  sadly  divided,  were  swept  along  in 
the  current.  On  the  seventh  of  June,  while  the  various  colonies  were 
still  moving  on  the  great  question,  Richard  Henry  Lee,  seconded  by 
John  Adams,  introduced  three  resolutions — one  for  independence,  one 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  499 

for  foreign  alliance,  and  one  for  confederation.  Action  was  postponed, 
and  a  committee  appointed  to  draft  a  declaration.  There  was  long 
debate  and  deliberation,  John  Adams  leading  for  the  independent  par 
ty,  John  Dickinson  for  the  party  of  conciliation.  On  the  second  of 
July  the  resolution  declaring  the  colonies  independent  was  passed, 
and  on  the  fourth  the  declaration  of  independence,  drafted  by  Jeffer 
son  and  somewhat  amended  by  the  committee  and  by  Congress,  was 
adopted  and  ordered  to  be  printed.  Four  days  later,  it  was  given  to 
the  world.  The  English  colonies  in  America  had  ceased  to  exist,  and 
a  new  nation  was  born. 

The  most  significant  fact  in  regard  to  the  declaration  of  indepen 
dence  was  the  delay  in  making  it.  Two  years  had  elapsed  since  the 
Continental  Congress  first  assembled ;  and  for  more  than  a  year  the 
colonies  had  been  engaged  in  desperate  hostilities,  and  had  an  army 
in  the  field.  Yet  they  lingered  and  hesitated.  There  was  in  truth, 
so  far  as  the  colonies  themselves  were  concerned,  nothing  inevitable 
about  the  American  Revolution.  There  was  no  irresistible  cause  for 
its  coming  then  or  later,  nothing  which  was  not  wholly  within  human 
control.  No  old  system  was  breaking  down  and  forcing  the  rise  of  a 
new  one.  The  people  in  the  English  colonies  were  thoroughly  and 
sincerely  loyal.  Here  and  there  might  be  found  a  man  like  Samuel 
Adams,  who  felt  that  independence  ought  to  come ;  but  such  men 
were  rare  exceptions.  The  colonies  had  lived  for  years  under  their 
own  governments,  which  were  free  and  simple ;  and  if  the  wise  pol 
icy  of  Walpole,  of  letting  them  severely  alone,  had  been  continued, 
the  connection  between  the  colonies  and  the  parent  country  need  nev 
er  have  been  severed.  The  American  Revolution  was  wholly  due,  from 
the  very  outset,  to  the  condition  of  England  and  of  English  politics, 
and  to  the  gross  and  arrogant  stupidity  of  the  King  and  his  minis 
ters,  supported  by  the  mass  of  the  people.  From  the  very  inception 
of  Grenville's  scheme  of  taxation  to  the  declaration  of  independence, 
the  course  of  the  English  government  was  a  tissue  of  ignorant  mis 
takes.  They  found  that  taxation  without  representation  was  firmly 
resisted  in  the  colonies ;  and  instead  of  quietly  abandoning  the  prin 
ciple,  they  enforced  it.  This  aroused  a  conflict  in  one  province,  and 
they  then  made  the  cause  of  that  colony  the  cause  of  all,  by  attempt 
ing  to  inflict  the  most  senseless  and  arbitrary  punishment  imagina 
ble.  They  forced  a  Continental  Congress  into  existence,  and  then 
trampled  on  its  loyalty,  scoffed  at  its  measures,  and  scorned  its  ap 
peals.  They  knew  that  the  colonists  were  almost  entirely  men  of 


500  HISTORY  OR  THE 

English  race,  that  they  were  of  fine  English  stock,  and  many  of  them 
descendants  of  the  men  who  had  fought  the  great  Rebellion.  Know 
ing  all  this,  thick-witted  peers  announced  in  the  House  of  Lords  that 
the  Americans  were  cowards ;  and  it  was  assumed  with  an  imbecile 
stupidity  which  passes  expression  that  Americans  would  not  fight. 
The  insults  of  Lord  Sandwich  and  his  fellows  were  bitterly  answered 
by  the  shouts  of  the  Minute-men,  as  the  flower  of  the  British  army 
recoiled  and  fell  back  from  the  slopes  of  Bunker  Hill. .  English  offi 
cers  precipitated  bloodshed,  and  English  ministers  planned  the  con 
quest  of  three  million  people  of  their  own  race,  separated  from  them 
by  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  Very  rarely  does  history  record  great  events 
so  largely  caused  by  actions,  as  needless  as  they  were  avoidable.  Igno 
rance  and  arrogance  have  been  responsible  for  many  misfortunes,  but 
they  never  cost  any  nation  more  than  they  did  England  in  1776.  By 
her  own  errors  and  her  corrupt  politics,  and  by  absolutely  nothing 
else,  she  drove  her  great  colonies  into  independence,  and  dismembered 
her  empire. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  501 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

THE  WAR  FOR  INDEPENDENCE:  FROM  1776  TO  1782. 

WITH  the  Declaration  of  Independence  colonial  existence  came  to 
an  end ;  but  six  dreary  years  of  hard  fighting  were  to  pass  be 
fore  the  declaration  became  an  admitted  fact.  The  War  of 
Independence  is  the  period  in  our  history  which  above  all  others  is 
thoroughly  familiar  to  every  one,  and  it  would  be  useless  and  super 
fluous  to  attempt  here  to  add  anything  to  what  has  already  been  writ 
ten  of  the  war,  or  to  trace  its  events  in  detail.  So  far  as  the  present 
work  is  concerned,  it  comes  to  an  end,  strictly  speaking,  with  the  ac 
tion  of  Congress  on  the  second  of  July,  1776.  But  American  history 
is  divided  into  two  parts — the  history  of  the  colonies  and  the  history 
of  the  United  States ;  and  between  these  two  portions — between  the 
Declaration  and  the  Treaty  of  Paris — lie  six  years  of  war.  In  that 
intervening  period,  although  the  colonies  had  ceased  to  exist  as  such, 
the  struggle  to  build  up  and  develop  a  great  nation  had  not  begun. 
Everything  was  absorbed  in  taking  the  first  step  which  must  precede 
national  life — in  securing  independence.  The  English  colonies  could 
not  begin  their  career  as  a  nation  until  they  had  extorted  from  Eng 
land,  and  from  the  world,  an  acknowledgment  of  their  independence. 
In  the  fullest  sense,  the  history  of  the  colonies  does  not  end  until  that 
of  the  nation  begins — with  the  Treaty  of  Paris.  For  the  sake  of  his 
torical  completeness,  therefore,  it  becomes  necessary  to  trace  in  the 
barest  outline  the  events  of  the  war  which  insured  national  existence. 
With  the  close  of  that  war  a  new  era  opens,  and  the  forces  generated 
during  a  century  and  a  half  of  colonial  life  begin  to  play  their  part, 
and  work  out  their  destiny  on  the  broad  stage  of  national  history. 

Before  Congress  had  agreed  to  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  the 
forerunners  of  a  fine  English  army  of  over  thirty  thousand  men,  in 
cluding  eight  thousand  Hessians,  had  already  arrived  in  New  York 
harbor;  and  by  the  end  of  August  these  well -equipped  and  thor 
oughly  disciplined  forces  were  ready  to  move  against  the  American 


502  HISTORY  OF  THE 

works  on  Long  Island.  Thus  far  the  scales  of  war,  despite  the  ill-fated 
Canadian  expedition,  had  inclined  heavily  in  favor  of  the  colonists ; 
but  they  were  now  about  to  turn,  and  the  rebellious  Americans  were 
soon  to  feel  the  full  strain  of  the  doubtful  conflict  in  which  they  had 
engaged  against  the  great  power  of  England.  On  the  twenty-seventh 
of  August  the  fighting  began  on  Long  Island.  The  American  out 
posts  were  driven  in,  a  strong  body  of  British  troops  advanced  by  an 
unguarded  pass,  and  reached  the  flank  of  Stirling's  command,  which 
was  also  attacked  in  front ;  and  finally  Stirling  was  forced  to  surren 
der  with  nearly  a  thousand  men.  The  Americans  were  pushed  back 
to  their  inner  defences,  and,  although  strongly  re-enforced  by  Wash 
ington,  were  in  great  danger.  The  suspense  continued  for  two  days, 
while  the  British  advanced  their  works,  and  prepared  to  crush  the 
main  body  of  the  American  army ;  but  on  the  twenty-ninth  it  was 
resolved  to  retreat ;  and  during  the  night,  in  the  face  of  many  diffi 
culties  and  mistakes,  the  American  forces  were  all  safely  transported 
to  New  York.  This  abandonment  of  Long  Island,  and  the  safe  re 
moval  of  the  army,  were  all  performed  under  the  immediate  super 
vision  of  Washington,  and  were  the  first  exhibitions  of  his  genius  for 
sustaining  defeat,  holding  his  army  together,  and  escaping  from  appar 
ently  hopeless  difficulties.  While  the  British  hesitated  and  lingered 
for  two  weeks,  the  question  of  evacuating  New  York  was  anxiously 
debated.  At  first  it  was  decided  to  hold  the  city ;  then  Congress  left 
the  whole  matter  to  the  commander-in-chief ;  and  Washington,  fully 
understanding  the  faults  of  his  motley  and  unorganized  forces,  deter 
mined  to  abandon  the  city.  Howe,  anxious  to  intercept  him,  sent 
vessels  up  the  river  and  landed  troops.  At  Kip's  Bay  the  Connecti 
cut  militia  gave  way  in  a  panic ;  while  Washington,  in  a  towering 
passion  at  their  flight,  rode  up  and  down,  and  vainly  tried  to  rally 
them.  The  other  rear  divisions,  hotly  pressed,  escaped  ia  safety,  and 
the  whole  army  was  brought  together  on  Harlem  Heights,  having  lost 
through  their  want  of  discipline  cannon  and  supplies.  Their  failings 
were  those  of  raw  troops,  for  there  was  no  lack  of  courage  and  spirit 
among  them.  The  very  day  after  their  disorderly  retreat  they  had 
a  sharp  skirmish  with  the  British,  and  inflicted  severe  losses  upon 
them.  Disorder  and  discontent  still  continued ;  but  the  fire  which 
destroyed  a  large  part  of  New  York,  and  the  slowness  of  the  Brit 
ish,  gave  a  brief  breathing  space.  On  the  twelfth  of  October  Howe 
began  to  advance  again,  intending  to  cut  off  Washington's  retreat; 
but  his  movements  were  so  clumsy  and  deliberate  that  Washington, 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  503 

who  was  fully  prepared,  fell  back  in  good  order  to  White  Plains,  skir 
mishing  with  success,  and  leaving  a  garrison  in  Fort  Washington.  At 
White  Plains  he  intrenched  himself.  The  British  attacked  one  of  the 
American  positions,  and,  after  a  short,  sharp  fight,  the  latter  retreated, 
having  suffered  less  than  their  enemies.  Washington  soon  after  again 
fell  back  to  an  unassailable  position  on  Northcastle  Heights,  while 
Howe  retraced  his  steps,  and  carried  by  assault  and  with  heavy  losses 
Fort  Washington.  Not  long  after,  Fort  Lee,  now  untenable,  was  aban 
doned,  and  the  Hudson  was  open  to  the  British. 

Washington's  condition  was  trying  in  the  extreme.  His  army  was 
greatly  reduced  by  the  return  to  their  homes  of  large  bodies  of  the 
militia,  and  so  many  more  were  soon  to  go  that  the  General  seemed 
on  the  point  of  being  left  without  soldiers.  He  was  hampered,  too, 
by  the  orders  of  Congress,  who  believed  that  their  collective  wisdom 
was  suited  to  'the  conduct  of  war,  and  he  had  not  that  control  over 
his  officers  so  essential  to  a  commander,  but  which  was  not  under 
stood  in  America.  With  all  these  difficulties  pressing  upon  him,  he  was 
obliged  to  act ;  for  it  was  clear  that  the  British  would  move  through 
New  Jersey  upon  Philadelphia.  Leaving  Lee  and  Heath  in  New  York, 
Washington  started  for  New  Jersey,  with  the  British,  under  Cornwal- 
lis,  close  at  his  heels.  As  the  Americans  went  out  at  one  end  of  a 
town,  the  British  entered  at  the  other.  With  an  army  reduced  to 
three  thousand  men,  Washington  continued  his  retreat,  watching  for 
an  opportunity  to  strike  a  blow ;  and  after  him  came  the  soldiers  of 
the  King,  ravaging,  burning,  and  destroying  as  they  advanced.  Wash 
ington  sent  in  every  direction  to  raise  troops,  and  appealed  strongly 
and  constantly  to  Congress  for  the  formation  of  a  regular  army.  Lee, 
who  was  ordered  to  join  him,  hung  back,  aiming  at  a  separate  com 
mand,  and  was  luckily  captured  by  a  British  scouting  party ;  and  then 
Sullivan,  who  succeeded  Lee,  moved  rapidly  forward,  and  joined  Wash 
ington  on  the  twentieth  of  December.  Pennsylvania  and  New  Jer 
sey  were  wild  with  panic  and  fear ;  Congress  had  left  Philadelphia  in 
alarm,  and  the  loyalists  were  coming  in  and  accepting  the  pardon  of 
fered  by  Howe.  The  curse  of  jarring  councils  and  colonial  jealousies 
began  to  make  its  evil  influence  strongly  felt.  It  was  the  supreme 
moment  of  the  American  Revolution,  and  the  fate  of  the  colonies  hung 
trembling  in  the  balance.  The  great  conflict,  with  all  its  tremendous 
issues,  was  centred  in  one  man,  at  the  head  of  a  small,  dispirited,  and 
neglected  army.  As  great  a  statesman  as  he  was  general,  Washing 
ton  felt  to  the  full  the  gravity  of  the  situation ;  and  he  knew  that 


504  HISTORY  OF  THE 

for  moral  effect,  far  more  than  for  any  military  gain,  a  victory  must 
be  won.  He  carried  the  American  Revolution  in  his  hands,  and  saved 
the  cause  of  the  colonies.  Crossing  the  Delaware  on  Christmas-night, 
Washington,  despite  delays,  and  the  failure  of  the  co-operating  col 
umns,  swept  down  upon  Trenton.  The  Hessians  posted  there  were 
surprised ;  their  commander,  Rahl,  was  mortally  wounded,  and,  over 
whelmed  by  the  fierce  charge  of  the  Americans,  they  surrendered. 
Nearly  a  thousand  men,  with  guns,  cannon,  and  flags,  were  the  tro 
phies  of  the  victory.  Washington  crossed  the  river,  recrossed  it,  and 
was  again  at  Trenton,  gathering  re-enforcements,  and  holding 
his  little  army  well  together,  while  the  startled  British  made 
hasty  preparations  to  retrieve  the  disaster.  Concentrating  seven  thou 
sand  men  at  Princeton,  Cornwallis  marched  to  Trenton  and  confront 
ed  Washington,  who  was  in  position  on  the  other  side  of  Assanpink 
Creek.  The  situation  was  perilous  in  the  extreme.  Leaving  his  fires 
burning,  Washington  marched  back  by  another  road  in  the  very  direc 
tion  by  which  Cornwallis  had  just  come.  In  the  morning  he  was  at 
Princeton,  and,  after  a  sharp  skirmish,  in  which  General  Mercer  was 
killed,  he  broke  into  the  town,  and  routed  the  regiments  left  there 
by  Cornwallis.  Leaving  Princeton,  Washington  withdrew  to  winter- 
quarters  at  Morristown,  and  there  was  a  pause  in  the  war.  The  forces 
engaged  in  these  actions  were  trifling,  but  the  life  of  a  nation  was  at 
stake,  and  this  brief  campaign,  both  from  a  political  and  military 
point  of  view,  was,  for  its  length — if  the  issues  involved  and  all  the 
conditions  be  considered — as  brilliant,  and  as  full  of  skill  and  daring, 
as  anything  in  the  annals  of  modern  warfare.  It  has  all  the  qualities 
of  Napoleon's  last  campaign  against  the  Allies  in  France,  and,  if  Wash 
ington  had  never  fought  another  battle,  would  entitle  him  to  the  place 
of  a  great  commander. 

During  the  winter  there  were  various  sm'all  affairs,  raids  and  sur 
prises,  on  both  sides,  in  which  the  Americans  had,  on  the  whole,  the 
advantage ;  but  the  most  important  event  was  the  despatch  of  sup 
plies  from  France,  through  the  efforts  of  Beaumarchais,  and  with  the 
connivance  of  the  French  government.  Meantime  Washington  devoted 
himself  to  reorganizing  and  increasing  his  army,  aided  to  some  extent 
by  Congress  at  last  waking  up  to  the  needs  of  the  war.  The  work, 
however,  was  slow  and  arduous,  the  colonies  were  lax  and  disorganized, 
and  it  was  nearly  summer  before  Washington  succeeded  in  getting 
even  seven  thousand  soldiers  together.  He  watched  Howe  closely, 
but  could  gather  little  information  as  to  his  movements  until  the  end 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  505 

of  July,  when  the  English  fleet  and  army  sailed  from  New  York  and 
appeared  in  the  Delaware.  Washington  hastened  southward  to  meet 
them,  and  was  joined  in  his  camp  on  the  Neshaminy  by  Lafayette, 
De  Kalb,  and  a  few  other  French  officers.  A  few  days  later  news 
came  that  Howe,  who  had  left  the  Delaware,  was  in  Chesapeake  Bay, 
and  Washington  again  pushed  forward  to  check  his  advance.  The 
opposing  forces  met  at  the  river  Brandywine.  The  Americans,  con 
fused  and  misled  by  uncertain  intelligence,  suffered  their  right  flank 
to  be  turned ;  Sullivan  fell  back  in  disorder,  Wayne  was  repulsed,  and 
Washington  was  forced  to  retreat.  A  few  days  later  Wayne's  com 
mand  was  surprised  at  Paoli,  and  suffered  severely.  The  British  press 
ed  on ;  the  news  of  their  advance  drove  the  members  of  Congress 
and  the  patriots  in  hasty  flight  from  Philadelphia ;  and  on  the  twen 
ty-sixth  of  August  Howe  was  in  possession  of  the  city.  The  English 
forces  were  then  somewhat  divided.  Troops  had  been  sent  against 
the  forts  on  the  Delaware ;  Cornvvallis,  with  several  regiments,  was  in 
Philadelphia ;  and  the  main  body  of  the  army  was  encamped  at 
Germantown,  where  Washington,  undeterred  by  defeat,  determined 
to  fall  suddenly  upon  the  main  body  of  the  enemy.  His  plans 
were  laid  with  his  wonted  skill,  but  the  attack  was  to  be  made  by 
four  columns,  and  he  failed  through  the  errors  of  his  subordinates. 
Early  in  the  morning,  on  the  fourth  of  October,  the  Americans  ad 
vanced  rapidly  under  cover  of  a  thick  mist,  driving  in  the  advance 
posts,  and  pushed  on,  flushed  with  success,  upon  the  main  line.  Ev 
erything  promised  success ;  but  some  of  the  British  threw  themselves 
into  the  Chew  House,  and  thus  brought  on  a  sharp  engagement  in  the 
rear  of  the  advancing  columns.  Time  was  thus  lost.  In  the  smoke 
and  fog,  and  with  firing  behind  them,  the  Americans  fell  into  confu 
sion  ;  two  of  the  co-operating  columns  mistaking  each  other  for  the 
enemy,  became  engaged,  the  English  forces  concentrated,  and  Wash 
ington  was  again  forced  to  retreat,  with  heavy  loss.  The  moral  effect 
of  proving  his  ability  to  fight  so  soon  after  a  defeat  was  the  only 
gain  in  the  disaster  at  Germantown.  Howe  withdrew  his  forces  to 
Philadelphia,  and  devoted  himself  to  clearing  the  river;  but  his  first 
attempt  on  Fort  Mercer  failed  completely.  Colonel  Donop  and  four 
hundred  Hessians  were  killed,  and  the  rest  driven  back  to  the  city. 
With  the  aid  of  the  fleet  the  next  effort  was  more  successful.  Fort 
Miffiin  was  taken,  and  Fort  Mercer  soon  after  was  abandoned.  Master 
of  the  river,  Howe  endeavored  to  draw  Washington  into  a  general 
battle,  but  Washington  would  not  leave  his  position.  There  was 


506  HISTORY  OF  THE 

some  heavy  skirmishing,  in  which  the  advantage  was  with  the  Ameri 
cans  ;  and  then  Howe  went  into  winter-quarters  at  Philadelphia,  and 
Washington,  with  his  barefooted,  ragged,  and  suffering  soldiers,  with 
drew  to  Valley  Forge. 

While  Washington  was  waging  doubtful  war,  enduring  defeat,  and 
solely  by  skill  and  constancy  holding  the  enemy  in  check,  the  fate 
of  the  Revolution  was  decided  in  the  North.  In  accordance  with  a 
favorite  plan  of  the  King,  General  Burgoyne,  with  eight  thousand  men, 
a  large  body  of  Indians,  and  a  heavy  train  of  artillery,  came  down 
from  St.  John's,  aiming  at  Albany,  and  intending  to  join  Howe  and 
cut  off  New  England  from  the  rest  of  the  colonies.  At  first  all  went 
well.  Through  the  negligence  of  St.  Clair,  Ticonderoga  had  to  be 
abandoned,  and  the  Americans  retreating,  lost  heavily  by  the  attacks 
of  the  British,  who  pursued  them  closely.  Schnyler,  who  was  in 
command  in  the  northern  department,  fell  back  from  Fort  Anne  to 
Fort  Edward,  where  he  joined  St.  Clair.  They  could  only  muster  be 
tween  them  about  five  thousand  men,  and  Schuyler  sent  for  re-enforce 
ments.  Washington,  straitened  as  he  was,  responded,  and  sent  troops, 
including  Morgan  and  his  Virginia  riflemen ;  but  the  whole  country 
was  terror-stricken  by  Burgoyne's  rapid  success.  In  reality  the  alarm 
was  most  fortunate.  To  form  a  regular  army  in  the  colonies  was  a 
task  of  surpassing  difficulty ;  to  call  out  in  defence  of  their  invaded 
homes  men  who  were  brave  and  skilled  in  rough  fighting,  was  com 
paratively  easy.  The  keen  sense  of  danger  roused  the  people  to  arms. 
Burgoyne  was  delayed  after  his  victories  by  Schuyler's  having  torn 
up  bridges  and  obstructed  the  roads,  and  in  that  time  the  tide  turned 
against  him.  Burgoyne  intended  to  strike  right  and  left  as  well  as 
in  front,  and  in  pursuance  of  this  plan  Colonel  St.  Leger  was  sent  to 
the  west  to  capture  Fort  Schuyler,  defended  by  Colonel  Gansevoort, 
with  some  seven  hundred  men.  Gansevoort  was  fully  prepared,  and 
refused  to  surrender;  and  while  St.  Leger  besieged  him  the  militia  of 
the  country  turned  out  under  Herkimer,  and  marched  to  the  relief  of 
the  fort.  St.  Leger  met  them  at  Oriskany,  and  there  was  a  bloody 
and  desperate  fight,  which  gave  the  soldiers  in  the  fort  opportunity 
for  a  successful  sally,  and  checked  the  British  completely.  St.  Leger, 
alarmed  by  rumors  of  the  advance  of  fresh  forces,  raised  the  siege  and 
retreated.  In  the  east,  Burgoyne  sent  out  five  hundred  men  under 
Colonel  Baum,  to  capture  the  supplies  stored  at  Bennington,  of  which 
he  began  to  have  sore  need.  Again  the  militia  turned  out,  composed 
of  the  hardy  settlers  of  New  Hampshire  and  Vermont,  led  by  John 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  50? 

Stark.  They  surrounded  the  British,  stormed  their  earthworks,  capt 
ured  Baura  and  all  his  men,  and  repulsed  with  slaughter  Colonel 
Breyman,  who  had  been  sent  to  his  relief.  These  victories  inspired 
all  the  country  with  enthusiasm.  Men  poured  into  the  camp  at  Be- 
mus's  Heights,  where  Gates  had  superseded  Schuyler,  and  was  ready 
to  reap  the  fruits  of  the  victories  achieved  by  the  people.  The  Brit 
ish  had  no  choice  but  to  push  forward,  and  on  the  nineteenth  of  Sep 
tember  they  attacked  the  American  position  in  force.  There  was  a 
day  of  hard  fighting,  little  generalship,  each  corps  fighting  for  itself, 
and  in  the  evening  the  Americans  withdrew  within  their  lines.  It 
was  nominally  a  drawn  battle,  but  it  was  disastrous  to  the  British. 
There  was  a  delay  of  nearly  three  weeks,  while  the  British  strength 
ened  their  defences,  and  fresh  troops  came  into  the  American  camp. 
Clinton  was  burning  and  ravaging  on  the  Hudson ;  but  he  gave  no 
hope  to  Burgoyne,  whose  situation  was  fast  becoming  desperate.  On 
the  seventh  of  October  he  again  advanced,  there  was  another  hard 
fight,  and  the  British  fell  back  in  disorder  to  their  camp.  The  next 
day  Burgoyne  began  his  retreat,  and  abandoning  almost  everything, 
moved  to  Saratoga ;  but  his  position  was  hopeless.  Every  avenue  of 
escape  was  cut  off ;  his  provisions  were  nearly  exhausted ;  and  on  the 
seventeenth  of  October,  after  some  negotiation,  he  surrendered,  and 
over  five  thousand  men  laid  down  their  arms  and  were  sent  as  pris 
oners  to  Boston. 

The  battles  in  New  York,  which  have  taken  rank  among  the  deci 
sive  battles  of  the  world,  produced  three  important  results. 
The  first  was  a  wretched  intrigue,  known  as  the  Conway  Cabal, 
to  supersede  Washington  and  put  Gates  at  the  head  of  the  armies. 
While  Washington  was  struggling  through  the  dreary  winter  at  Val 
ley  Forge,  overcoming  every  sort  of  obstacle,  arguing  with  Congress, 
and  trying  to  teach  them  their  duty,  spending  his  whole  strength  of 
heart,  and  mind,  and  body,  this  miserable  faction  was  at  work  against 
him.  They  were  not  without  hopes  of  success ;  for  Congress,  which 
had  begun  to  degenerate,  was  dazzled  by  the  northern  victories,  and 
failed  to  comprehend  the  greater  services  rendered  by  Washington  in 
defeat.  The  whole  business  finally  came  to  light,  and  was  ruined  at 
once  by  the  popular  support  given  to  Washington.  Gates  was  sent 
from  the  board  of  war  to  the  North,  Mifflin  was  put  on  trial  for  mis 
management  in  the  quartermaster's  department,  and  Conway's  resig 
nation  was  accepted,  and  his  place  as  inspector-general  filled  by  Baron 
Steuben,  who  did  excellent  work  in  effecting  discipline  and  organiza- 


508  HISTORY  OF  THE 

tion  among  the  troops.  The  second  issue  of  Burgoyne's  surrender 
was  the  recognition  of  the  colonies  by  France,  and  a  treaty  of  alli 
ance  with  that  power,  negotiated  by  Franklin  and  ratified  by  Congress 
in  May.  The  third  result  was  an  offer  by  Lord  North  to  abandon  the 
right  of  taxation,  and  recognize  Congress.  The  opposition  wished  to 
go  farther,  and,  without  yielding  independence,  to  hold  that  question 
in  abeyance,  and  make  peace  at  all  hazards ;  but  the  insane  obstinacy 
of  the  King  thwarted  the  opposition,  and  Lord  North's  propositions, 
like  all  the  rest  of  his  policy,  had  the  fatal  defect  of  being  too  late. 

The  spring  of  1778  wore  away  without  any  event  of  importance. 
The  British  made  an  attempt  to  capture  Lafayette,  sent  out  with  an 
army  of  observation,  and  were  completely  foiled.  The  end  of  June 
came  before  the  English  army  moved,  and  then  it  was  merely  to  re 
treat.  Fourteen  thousand  men,  under  command  of  Sir  Henry  Clinton, 
who  had  succeeded  Howe,  marched  from  Philadelphia,  which  they  had 
vainly  held  all  winter,  toward  New  York.  Washington  broke  camp  at 
once  and  started  in  pursuit,  determined  to  strike  a  heavy  blow.  He 
came  up  with  the  British  at  Monmouth  Court-house,  and  Lee,  in  com 
mand  of  the  advance,  was  ordered  to  attack  as  soon  as  the  enemy  be 
gan  to  move.  The  opening  skirmishes  were  in  favor  of  the  Ameri 
cans  ;  but  Lee  gave  contradictory  orders,  the  troops  became  confused, 
and  finally  Lee  fell  back.  He  was  met  by  Washington,  filled  with 
anger  at  this  disregard  of  his  orders,  and  there  was  a  stormy  scene  be 
tween  them,  the  affair  resulting  subsequently  in  Lee's  trial  by  court- 
martial  and  suspension.  Washington  set  to  work  to  remedy  Lee's  mis 
takes.  He  stopped  the  retreat,  brought  up  the  main  body  of  his  army, 
and  repulsed  the  British,  who  had  begun  to  advance ;  but  the  oppor 
tunity  for  victory  was  lost,  and  the  battle  was  not  decisive.  Clinton 
marched  on,  and  reached  New  York  in  safety,  followed  by  Washing 
ton,  who  took  up  his  position  at  White  Plains. 

The  arrival  of  the  French  turned  every  one's  attention  in  a  new 
direction.  Philadelphia  was  saved.  D'Estaing,  the  French  admiral, 
believed  there  was  not  sufficient  water  to  admit  his  entrance  at  New 
York,  and  he  therefore  sailed  to  Newport,  held  by  the  British,  under 
General  Pigot,  with  six  thousand  men.  The  French  troops  were  to  co 
operate  with  Sullivan,  who  was  in  Rhode  Island  with  some  ten  thou 
sand  soldiers.  Sullivan  advanced,  however,  before  the  time  agreed 
upon,  there  was  a  misunderstanding  with  D'Estaing,  and  a  fatal  de 
lay.  Lord  Howe,  with  the  English  fleet,  appeared  off  the  harbor,  and 
D'Estaing  put  to  sea  to  give  him  battle.  The  British  avoided  him,  a 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  509 

storm  scattered  both  fleets,  and  D'Estaing  came  back  with  his  ships 
much  shattered,  and  then,  despite  the  prayers  and  remonstrances  of 
the  Americans,  departed  to  Boston  to  repair  and  refit.  Sullivan,  thus 
left  alone,  determined  to  fight  at  all  events,  and  on  the  twenty-ninth 
of  August  advanced.  Although  most  of  his  troops  were  raw  levies, 
they  fought  well  and  bravely  ;  but  were  finally  driven  back,  suffering, 
however,  much  less  than  the  enemy.  The  news  of  coming  re-enforce 
ments  from  New  York  obliged  Sullivan  to  retreat  to  the  main-land, 
a  movement  which  he  executed  safely  and  just  in  time.  Thus  the 
first  combined  attempt  of  the  allies,  from  which  so  much  was  confi 
dently  expected,  came  to  nothing,  owing  mainly  to  the  slackness  of 
the  French,  and  left  behind  it  much  heart-burning  and  discord.  Else 
where  little  was  done.  On  the  western  frontier  the  Indians,  incited 
by  the  British,  broke  in  upon  the  settlements  and  laid  them  waste, 
the  Wyoming  Massacre  standing  out  among  these  forays  with  evil 
prominence.  But  the  gain,  on  the  whole,  was  with  the  Americans. 
Clarke  finally  made  himself  master  of  Vincennes,  and  the  Indians  be 
gan  to  desert  the  British  standard.  George  III.  and  his  ministers 
had,  in  fact,  little  but  a  long  list  of  failures  and  defeats  to  contem 
plate.  They  had  been  driven  from  New  England.  For  two  years 
they  had  subjected  the  middle  provinces  to  all  the  horrors  of  war, 
and  the  only  result  was  that  Clinton  controlled  the  ground  upon 
which  his  troops  were  camped,  and  was  held  in  check  by  Washington 
and  prevented  from  making  any  effective  movement.  One  portion 
of  the  colonies  had  remained  unmolested,  and  it  was  determined  to 
carry  the  war,  which  had  failed  elsewhere,  to  the  South. 

Colonel  Campbell,  late  in  the  autumn  of  1778,  landed  in  Georgia 
with  two  thousand  men,  surprised  and  defeated  Robert  Howe,  in  com 
mand  of  the  American  forces,  and  captured  Savannah.  There  he  was 
joined  by  Prevost  from  St.  Augustine,  and  soon  after  the  seizure  of 
Augusta  restored  Georgia  to  England.  These  victories  were,  how 
ever,  the  signal  for  the  outbreak  of  savage  and  desperate  civil  war. 
The  Tories  were  stronger  and  more  determined  in  the  South  than 
anywhere  in  the  North,  except  in  New  York,  and  they  eagerly  joined 
the  King's  forces  and  formed  regiments.  On  the  other  side  the  pa 
triots  formed  companies  of  rangers  and  guerillas,  and  the  whole  coun 
try,  from  Georgia  to  Virginia,  was  desolated  during  the  period  of  the 
British  ascendency  by  bitter  partisan  warfare.  The  success 
of  the  English  alarmed  Congress.  Lincoln  was  hastily  sent 
down  to  take  Howe's  place,  and  during  the  winter  and  spring  neither 


510  HISTORY  OF  THE 

he  nor  his  enemy  accomplished  anything  of  importance.  In  May 
Prevost  appeared  before  Charleston,  where  some  of  the  citizens  were 
for  making  terms,  but  Rutledge  and  the  patriots  would  not  yield. 
Lincoln  attacked  Prevost  and  was  repulsed,  and  soon  after  the  Brit 
ish  fell  back  to  Savannah.  In  the  North  Clinton  remained  inactive. 
General  Matthews  landed  with  a  small  force  in  Virginia,  plundered 
houses  and  ravaged  the  country,  while  Tryon  made  a  second  san 
guinary  raid  in  Connecticut,  burning  and  destroying,  and  killing  the 
inhabitants  of  the  villages.  Further  movements  of  this  sort  were 
checked  by  Wayne's  brilliant  assault  upon  Stony  Point,  resulting  in 
the  capture  of  the  fort,  with  five  hundred  men  and  cannon  and  sup 
plies,  and  in  the  destruction  of  the  works,  which  kept  Clinton  quiet 
and  attentive  to  the  defence  of  New  York.  There  was  also  an  at 
tempt — with  land  and  naval  forces — made  by  Massachusetts  against 
a  British  post  on  the  Penobscot,  which  ended  in  defeat  and  disaster ; 
and  with  the  coming  of  autumn  both  Clinton  and  Washington  went 
into  winter-quarters. 

The  centre  of  war  had  in  truth  shifted  to  the  south.  Soon  after 
Prevost  returned  to  Savannah,  D'Estaing,  who  had  been  repulsed  in  the 
West  Indies,  appeared  there  with  his  fleet.  Troops  were  landed,  and 
Prevost  summoned  to  surrender.  While  the  negotiation  halted  re-en 
forcements  arrived,  the  British  determined  to  stand  their  ground,  and 
Lincoln,  hastily  collecting  the  best  army  he  could,  pushed  south  and 
joined  the  French.  The  British,  however,  still  held  out,  and  at  last 
D'Estaing,  alarmed  by  the  lateness  of  the  season  for  the  safety  of  his 
fleet,  resolved  to  withdraw,  and  an  immediate  attack  became  necessary. 
On  the  ninth  of  October  the  assault  was  made,  and  the  French  and 
Americans  were  repulsed,  with  heavy  slaughter.  D'Estaing  was  wound 
ed,  and  Pulaski  killed.  The  French  took  to  their  ships  and  sailed  for 
France,  while  Lincoln,  whose  army  was  chiefly  made  up  of  militia,  and 
rapidly  melted  away,  retreated  as  best  he  could  to  Charleston.  More 
formidable  preparations,  however,  were  making  against  the  South  than 
those  of  Prevost  and  Campbell.  Late  in  December  Sir  Henry  Clin 
ton  left  New  York  with  eight  thousand  men,  and  the  fleet  under  Ar- 
buthnot.  After  suffering  severely  from  storms,  and  not  until  the  end 
of  January,  Clinton  found  himself  in  Georgia  with  a  united  force  of 
ten  thousand  men.  Sending  to  New  York  for  Lord  Rawdon  and 
three  thousand  additional  soldiers,  Clinton  began  to  advance  slowly 
and  carefully  upon  Charleston,  where  Lincoln  was  in  command  of  the 
army,  and  strongly  sustained  by  the  State  government.  But  there 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  511 

was  a  great  deal  of  fear  and  disaffection,  and  the  unfortified  city  was 
really  indefensible.  Washington  would  have  had  Lincoln  withdraw, 
and  not  risk  so  much  in  defence  of  the  town  ;  but  this  view  was  not 
accepted,  and  Lincoln  devoted  all  his  energies  to  constructing  forti 
fications.  The  task  was  hopeless.  Arbuthnot  passed  Fort  Moultrie 
in  safety  ;  Clinton  pushed  his  works  forward,  and  on  the  twelfth  of 
May  Lincoln  capitulated,  and  the  town  and  army  fell  into  the  hands 
of  the  British.  The  plundering  of  Prevost  was  continued,  but  in  a 
more  organized  fashion,  and  the  English  soldiers  and  officers  enriched 
themselves  with  the  spoils  of  the  city.  Ten  days  later  confiscation  was 
threatened  to  all  who  did  not  submit;  and  on  the  third  of  June  Clin 
ton  issued  a  proclamation  requiring  all  the  inhabitants,  on  pain  of  be 
ing  treated  as  rebels,  to  take  up  arms  for  the  King.  This  was  the  be 
ginning  of  a  policy  of  crushing  and  brutal  severity,  replete  with  plun 
dering,  confiscation,  hanging,  ill-treatment  of  prisoners,  and  massacres 
after  surrender ;  which,  backed  as  it  was  by  a  large  party  of  native  loy 
alists,  gave  to  the  war  in  the  South  a  character  for  savage  barbarity 
and  bitter  feeling  unknown  elsewhere.  Soon  after  his  proclamation 
was  published,  Clinton  departed  for  New  York,  leaving  Cornwallis, 
now  the  favorite  of  the  ministry  and  his  own  rival,  in  command.  The 
winter  in  the  North  had  been  marked  by  great  suffering  in  the  Amer 
ican  army,  and  by  indecisive  and  trifling  actions,  with  little  advantage 
to  either  side.  On  his  return  from  South  Carolina,  Clinton  turned  his 
attention  to  gaining  by  treachery  what  he  had  failed  to  win  by  force ; 
but  there  is  no  need  to  rehearse  the  familiar  story  of  Arnold's  treason. 
It  is  the  black  chapter  of  the  war  for  Independence.  The  prize  was 
West  Point  and  the  control  of  the  Hudson.  The  plot  failed  miser 
ably,  and  Major  Andre  met  the  merited  death  of  a  spy  by  the  hands 
of  the  hangman  ;  while  the  greater  criminal,  Arnold,  took  himself  and 
his  services  over  to  the  British. 

But  the  last  scenes  in  the  war  were  not  to  be  enacted  in  the  north 
ern  or  middle  states.  The  final  decision  of  the  great  question  was  to 
be  made  in  the  South.  The  fall  of  Charleston  for  the  moment  para 
lyzed  resistance  in  South  Carolina,  and  the  fortified  posts  of  the  inte 
rior  fell  one  after  another  into  the  hands  of  the  British.  Tarleton 
ranged  over  the  country,  ravaging,  plundering,  and  dispersing  the  small 
parties  of  militia  retreating  to  the  north,  while  Cornwallis  enforced 
everywhere  his  policy  of  harsh  severity  and  brutal  punishments.  The 
middle  of  July  had  come  before  the  patriots,  who  had  rallied  under 
Sumter,  fell  upon  a  party  of  British  raiders  and  routed  them.  Sum- 


512  HISTORY  OF  THE 

ter  followed  up  this  affair  by  attacking  the  British  unsuccessfully  at 
Rocky  Mount,  and  later  defeated  some  regiments  of  loyalists  at  Hang 
ing  Rock.  Meantime  Washington  had  detached  from  his  little  army 
two  thousand  men  under  De  Kalb,  and  Virginia  voted  as  many  more. 
Washington  wished  to  have  the  southern  department  confided  to 
Greene,  but  Congress  appointed  Gates,  who  hurried  southward,  gath 
ering  militia  on  the  way,  and  joined  De  Kalb  at  his  camp  on  Deep 
River.  Thence  he  pushed  on,  full  of  confidence,  to  overwhelm  the 
British  under  Lord  Rawdon  at  Camden  ;  but  his  delays  at  a  critical 
moment  gave  Rawdon  time  to  intrench,  and  Cornwallis  to  come  up. 
The  army  was  weakened  by  detaching  Sumter  with  eight  hundred 
men  to  cut  off  the  British  convoy  and  stores.  Ignorant  of  the  num 
ber  of  his  soldiers,  with  a  bad  disposition  of  his  troops,  who  were 
strange  to  each  other,  and  chiefly  untrained  militia,  Gates  advanced, 
and  the  armies  came  together  near  Camden.  The  militia  broke  in 
a  panic,  and  fled  from  the  field,  with  Gates  among  them.  De  Kalb 
and  his  Continentals  stood  their  ground  for  a  time,  but  De  Kalb  was 
killed,  and  his  men  gave  way.  The  British  lost  heavily  in  the  battle, 
but  the  rout  of  the  Americans  was  complete.  The  whole  army  was 
scattered ;  Gates  fled  two  hundred  miles  to  Hillsborough ;  and  Sum 
ter,  who  had  captured  the  convoy,  was  by  his  own  carelessness  sur 
prised  and  beaten  by  Tarleton.  The  American  forces  in  South  Caro 
lina  were  utterly  dispersed. 

As  in  the  North  after  the  fall  of  Ticonderoga,  so  in  the  South  after 
Camden,  the  tide  turned  in  the  darkest  hour,  and  again  it  was  a  pop 
ular  movement,  the  rising  of  men  in  defence  of  their  homes.  Corn 
wallis,  destroying  property  and  life,  and  flushed  with  triumph,  looked 
forward  to  easy  conquest,  and  a  victorious  march  through  North  Car 
olina  and  Virginia.  Major  Ferguson  was  detached  with  two  hundred 
regulars  to  raise  the  loyalists,  and  he  soon  succeeded  in  enrolling  a 
large  body.  Separated  from  Cornwallis,  he  occupied  himself  with  the 
pursuit  of  various  partisan  bands,  and  learned  too  late  that  the  rising 
was  becoming  serious.  Williams  raised  a  strong  band  in  Ninety-six, 
and,  uniting  with  the  backwoodsmen  of  North  Carolina  and  Virginia 
under  Sevier  and  Shelby,  fell  upon  Ferguson  at  King's  Mountain.  They 
stormed  the  heights  held  by  the  British,  Ferguson  fell,  and  his  men 
were  all  either  killed  or  made  prisoners.  The  effect  of  the  victory 
was  electric.  The  loyalist  rising  in  North  Carolina  was  checked,  the 
patriots  everywhere  began  to  take  arms,  the  partisans  under  Sumter 
and  Marion  increased  in  numbers  and  activity,  while  Cornwallis  was 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  513 

forced  to  concentrate  his  army,  and  move  more  slowly  and  less  confi 
dently.  Meanwhile  Congress,  taking  at  last  the  advice  of  Washing 
ton,  sent  Greene  to  take  command  in  the  South.  Greene  hastened  to 
Charlotte,  where  he  found  a  miscellaneous  body  of  militia  gathered  by 
Gates  after  his  defeat,  utterly  unorganized,  and  requiring  all  the  weary 
work  which  had  been  expended  on  the  soldiers  Df  the  North.  With 
quiet  persistence  Greene  addressed  himself  to  his  task  of  organization 
and  enlistment;  and  his  first  act  was  to  shoot  deserters,  for  the  militia 
came  and  went  as  they  pleased.  While  thus  engaged,  Morgan,  with  a 
separate  command,  had  advanced  into  South  Carolina,  where  he  was 
breaking  up  the  roving  bands  of  royal  partisans  and  checking  their 
marauding.  Cornwallis,  eager  to  cut  him  off,  sent  Tarleton  in  pursuit, 
and  at  the  same  time  moved  the  main  army  forward  to  intercept  his 
retreat.  Tarleton,  eleven  hundred  strong,  and  well  equipped 
with  artillery,  came  up  with  the  Americans  at  the  Cowpens. 
Morgan  placed  his  cavalry  in  reserve,  the  Marylanders  in  the  centre, 
and  the  famous  riflemen  on  the  wings,  and  threw  forward  the  militia. 
The  latter  fell  back  before  the  British  onset,  skirmishing  heavily,  and 
the  main  line  came  into  action.  As  the  British  began  to  gain,  Morgan 
withdrew  the  Maryland  troops,  and  formed  them  again,  while  the  ene 
my,  confident  of  victory,  rushed  forward.  Again  the  Maryland  troops 
fronted  them,  the  wings  pressed  forward,  and  the  British  found  them 
selves  surrounded  and  exposed  to  a  deadly  and  converging  fire.  Col 
onel  Washington  and  his  cavalry,  coming  from  the  woods,  charged, 
and  the  British  gave  way  in  hopeless  confusion,  losing  more  than  half 
their  force  in  killed,  wounded,  and  prisoners.  Destroying  their  heavy 
baggage,  they  fled,  leaving  arms,  cannon,  and  standards  in  possession 
of  the  Americans.  Gathering  up  his  prisoners  and  spoils,  Morgan  re 
treated  in  leisurely  fashion  into  North  Carolina. 

The  blow  was  a  heavy  one  to  the  British ;  but  Cornwallis,  full  of 
his  scheme  of  ending  the  war  on  the  Chesapeake,  destroyed  his  heavy 
baggage,  and  pressed  on  to  the  north  to  subjugate  North  Carolina  and 
Virginia.  The  forces  of  Greene  and  Morgan  had  united  at  Guilford, 
but  were  too  weak  to  offer  battle.  The  light  troops,  under  Williams, 
hung  upon  the  British  flank,  and  Cornwallis,  resolving  to  crush  the 
Americans,  moved  rapidly  after  them.  By  a  rapid  and  masterly  re 
treat  of  two  hundred  miles  from  the  Catawba  to  the  Dan,  Greene  saved 
his  army,  and  the  moment  the  British  ceased  from  pursuit  was  again 
in  the  field.  The  loyalists  who  had  taken  arms  in  North  Carolina  were 
routed  and  their  rising  stopped,  while  Greene,  baffling  Cornwallis  un- 

33 


514  HISTORY  OF  THE 

til  he  should  receive  re-enforceinents,  refused  to  fight.  At  last,  by  the 
middle  of  March,  he  felt  strong  enough  to  risk  an  engagement,  and 
awaited  the  enemy  at  Guilford  Court-house,  where  a  sharp  battle  en 
sued,  in  which  the  British  lost  over  five  hundred,  and  the  Americans 
over  three  hundred  men.  The  British  broke  the  American  line,  and 
Greene,  without  having  used  his  reserves,  retreated  in  good  order  to 
a  place  of  safety ;  while  Cornwallis,  crippled  by  his  victory,  hurried 
away  closely  pursued  by  Greene,  eager  and  ready  to  fight  again,  and 
succeeded  in  escaping  safely  to  Wilmington.  Instead  of  seeking  to 
regain  Charleston  and  maintain  his  hold  on  the  Carolinas,  Cornwallis, 
still  inflamed  with  a  sense  of  his  own  triumphs,  persisted  in  his  plan 
of  uniting  with  the  other  English  forces  on  the  Chesapeake,  and,  leav 
ing  Wilmington,  marched  on  to  Virginia. 

Greene,  as  soon  as  Cornwallis  had  departed,  turned  back  to  South 
Carolina.  He  struck  first  at  Camden,  fought  with  Rawdon  at  Hob- 
kirk's  Hill,  was  defeated,  and  retreated  in  good  order  with  his  artil 
lery  and  baggage,  and  baffled  Rawdon,  who  pursued  him  vainly  with 
fresh  troops.  Marion  and  Lee  in  the  interval  cut  the  communication 
between  Camden  and  Charleston,  and  the  British  were  obliged  to  aban 
don  the  former  position,  while  their  outlying  posts  fell  one  after  an 
other  into  the  hands  of  Sumter  and  Marion.  The  north-western  part 
of  South  Carolina  being  cleared,  Greene  moved  against  Ninety-six,  and, 
after  failing  to  carry  it  by  storm,  was  forced  to  retreat  by  the  advance 
of  Rawdon.  The  moment  the  British  turned,  Greene  was  on  their 
heels  harassing  and  distressing  them.  Ninety-six  was  isolated,  and 
Cruger  obliged  to  abandon  it  and  join  Rawdon,  who  soon  after  sailed 
for  England.  Everywhere  the  British  were  beaten  in  detail,  and  their 
posts  and  forts  lost.  Coming  down  from  the  Santee,  Greene  gave  their 
united  forces  battle  at  Eutaw  Springs,  where  at  first  he  carried  all  be 
fore  him ;  but  his  advance  was  checked  by  a  party  who  threw  them 
selves  into  a  brick  house,  and  he  was  in  a  second  attack  defeated. 
The  total  loss  to  the  Americans  was  over  five  hundred ;  to  the  British, 
over  fifteen  hundred  men.  After  this  action  Greene  withdrew  to  the 
heights  of  the  Santee  to  recruit.  In  a  campaign  of  less  than  a  year, 
against  every  conceivable  difficulty,  with  raw  troops  and  no  supplies, 
he  had  taken  two  states  from  the  enemy.  He  had  fought,  been  beat 
en,  and  fought  again,  cleared  the  country,  and  shut  the  British  up  in 
Charleston.  The  campaign  was  a  masterpiece  of  skill  and  fortitude, 
and  justly  places  Greene  next  to  Washington  among  the  soldiers  of 
the  Revolution. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  515 

While  Virginia  was  generously  sending  her  troops  to  the  south,  her 
own  territory  was  invaded.  In  January,  Arnold,  with  sixteen  hundred 
men,  was  on  the  James,  and  soon  after  Phillips  arrived  with  a  larger 
force,  and  a  general  plundering  and  destruction  began ;  for  Lafayette, 
who  had  been  hurried  to  Virginia  with  two  thousand  men,  was  too 
weak  to  offer  any  effectual  resistance.  In  May,  Corn  wall  is,  arriving 
from  the  south,  relieved  Arnold  from  the  command  which  had  de 
volved  upon  him  through  the  death  of  Phillips,  and  devoted  the  early 
summer  to  harrying  Virginia  from  one  end  to  the  other,  destroying 
property  to  the  value,  as  it  was  computed,  of  three  millions  of  pounds. 
Lafayette  and  Steuben  were  obliged  to  retreat  before  him,  and  Wayne, 
who  had  also  come  to  the  scene  of  war,  was  defeated  in  an  action 
near  Jamestown.  Cornwallis  was  checked  by  orders  from  Clinton  to 
detach  troops  to  New  York,  and  had  begun  reluctantly  to  obey,  when 
fresh  instructions  came  from  the  ministry,  with  whom  he  was  in  high 
favor,  to  continue  the  Virginia  campaign.  Clinton  was  therefore  com 
pelled  to  give  way,  and  Cornwallis,  concentrating  his  troops,  took  up 
a  strong  position  at  Yorktown. 

In  the  course  of  events,  and  in  the  circumstances  of  the  times, 
Washington,  with  unerring  sagacity,  saw  that  the  supreme  moment 
had  come,  and  that  the  decisive  blow  could  now  be  struck,  for  it  was 
possible  to  unite  at  last  the  allied  forces.  De  Grasse  was  expected  in 
the  Chesapeake,  where,  in  fact,  he  soon  arrived,  and  landed  four  thou 
sand  men.  Graves,  the  English  admiral,  was  incompetent,  and  quar 
relled  with  Hood,  so  that  De  Barras  slipped  out  from  Newport  with 
his  fleet  and  the  transports,  carrying  ordnance,  and  joined  De  Grasse. 
Rochambeau,  marching  from  Rhode  Island,  effected  a  junction  with 
Washington,  while  Clinton,  firm  in  the  idea  that  the  siege  of  New 
York  was  intended,  suffered  them  to  cross  the  Hudson  without  moles 
tation.  Early  in  September  the  allies  were  moving  rapidly  to  the 
south,  and  by  the  end  of  the  month  they  were  before  Yorktown. 
With  difficulty  keeping  De  Grasse  at  his  important  post,  Washington 
pushed  the  siege  with  all  possible  vigor.  The  British  fell  back  from 
their  outlying  works,  the  allies  pushed  their  trenches  rapidly,  and  on 
the  fifteenth  of  October  the  Americans  under  Hamilton,  and  the  French 
under  Deux  Ponts,  stormed  two  advanced  redoubts,  carried  them,  and 
included  them  in  their  lines.  The  position  of  Cornwallis  was  now 
hopeless ;  his  sorties  were  unavailing,  his  escape  impossible.  On  the 
eighteenth  the  capitulation  was  signed;  on  the  following  day  seven 
thousand  British  soldiers  laid  down  their  arms,  and  gave  up  York- 


516  HISTORY  OF  THE 

» 

town,  with  ships,  cannon,  and  supplies,  to  their  conquerors.  This  vic 
tory  was  a  fit  crown  to  Washington's  military  career.  To  win  it  he 
had  to  employ  every  talent  both  of  the  statesman  and  the  general. 
He  had  to  overcome  the  difficulties  inseparable  from  allied  forces — 
to  unite  in  common  action  not  only  the  French  and  American  armies, 
but  the  French  fleet,  which  was  essential  to  his  plans — to  move  rap 
idly,  and  strike  hard.  The  perfection  of  his  work  is  shown  by  his 
triumph  and  by  its  results.  For  nearly  a  year  more  the  war 
dragged  along;  nothing  was  done  in  the  North,  but  in  the 
South  the  fighting  went  on  fitfully.  Wayne  cleared  Georgia,  and 
forced  the  British  to  evacuate  Savannah,  and  the  treaty  of  peace  soon 
after  removed  them  from  New  York  and  their  last  hold  upon  the  col 
onies.  But  the  surrender  at  Yorktown  was  the  real  close  of  the  war, 
and  was  recognized  as  such  both  in  America  and  Europe.  It  crushed 
the  last  lingering  hope  in  England  of  subjugating  the  rebellious  prov 
inces,  and  led  to  the  Treaty  of  Paris,  by  which  the  independence  of 
the  thirteen  colonies  was  secured  and  acknowledged,  after  seven  years 
of  hard  and  often  desperate  war. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  517 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

PEACE:  1782. 

WHILE  the  armies  of  the  colonies  were  in  the  field  during  the  six 
years  of  war,  a  rapid  political  development  had  gone  on  side  by  side 
with  the  battles  and  sieges  by  which  independence  was  secured.  A 
confederacy,  loose  and  ill-constructed,  had  been  formed  by  Congress 
and  assented  to  by  the  colonies,  which  had  one  after  another  cast  off 
their  old  governments,  adopted  constitutions,  and  became  states.  The 
defects  of  the  confederacy  had  begun  to  show  themselves  very  clear 
ly  ;  the  separatist  principle  was  predominant,  and  Congress  had  greatly 
declined  in  character  and  ability.  All  this  political  growth  and  move 
ment,  both  in  the  individual  states  and  in  the  confederacy,  belongs 
not  to  the  history  of  the  colonies  but  to  that  of  the  United  States. 
The  great  forces  of  nationality  and  separatism,  of  aristocracy  and  de 
mocracy,  which  have  made  up  the  history  of  the  United  States,  were 
then  just  coming  into  play  and  beginning  to  be  felt,  were  laying  the 
foundation  of  future  parties,  and  drawing  the  geographical  lines  on 
which  those  parties  were  formed.  The  political  development  of  the 
war  period  is  of  deep  importance,  but  it  belonged  to  the  future,  not 
to  the  past ;  it  was  national,  not  colonial. 

The  struggle  for  independence  has  also  another  side,  that  of  di 
plomacy,  which  fought  the  battle  of  the  colonies  among  the  conti 
nental  nations  of  Europe.  Thither  went  some  of  the  ablest  men  in 
America.  The  conspicuous  figure  is  that  of  Franklin,  who  turned  the 
scale  in  our  favor  at  the  court  of  France.  To  strive  vainly  for  the 
selfish  and  useless  friendship  of  Spain,  John  Jay  was  sent  to  Madrid ; 
Henry  Laurens,  on  his  way  to  negotiate  for  a  loan  in  Holland,  fell 
into  British  hands,  and  was  sent  to  the  Tower ;  John  Adams,  appoint 
ed  peace  commissioner,  after  a  season  in  France,  sustained  the  failing 
finances  of  the  colonies  by  loans  which  he  effected  with  the  Dutch, 
and  obtained  their  recognition  of  the  young  republic.  In  June,  1781, 
Congress  joined  all  these  distinguished  men  in  a  new  peace  commis- 


518  HISTORY  OF  THE 

sion,  with  instructions  inspired  by  Luzerne,  requiring  them  to  ask  only 
for  independence  and  the  validity  of  the  treaties  with  France. 

In  England  the  slow  and  unsuccessful  war  had  rapidly  developed 
the  strength  of  the  opposition,  and  the  surrender  of  Cornwal- 
lis  crushed  the  last  hopes  of  the  ministry.  On  the  twenty- 
seventh  of  February,  Conway's  motion  against  continuing  the  war 
passed  by  a  majority  of  nineteen ;  this  was  followed  by  an  address 
to  the  King,  declaring  all  those  his  enemies  who  advised  a  prosecu 
tion  of  the  war;  a  bill  was  introduced  to  enable  the  King  to  make 
peace ;  and  on  the  twentieth  of  March  Lord  North  resigned.  The 
government  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  Rockingham  Whigs.  Shel- 
burne  had  the  home  department,  which  had  always  included  the  colo 
nies,  while  Fox  had  the  foreign  affairs.1  Shelburne  at  once  sent  Mr. 
Oswald  as  his  representative  to  Paris,  and  soon  after  Fox  attacked 
him,  and  sent  Mr.  Grenville  to  represent  his  department.  Each  en 
voy  struggled  to  get  control  of  the  negotiation ;  and  Franklin,  who 
had  been  occupied  in  shutting  Spain  out  of  the  treaty,  made  the 
most  of  both  of  them.  The  contest  between  the  secretaries  became 
bitter;  Rockingham  died,  Fox  withdrew  from  the  Cabinet,  and  Shel 
burne  was  at-  the  head  of  the  ministry.  The  new  Prime  Minister, 
anxious  to  keep  the  cause  of  the  colonies  separate  from  that  of 
France,  was  eager  to  come  to  terms  with  Franklin ;  and  the  nego 
tiation  seemed  almost  concluded,  when  Jay  appeared  on  the  scene  at 
Paris.  Jay,  disliking  and  mistrusting  Spain,  and  believing  Franklin 
too  ready  to  yield  to  France,  checked  the  negotiation,  which  was  pros-_ 
pering  so  well  with  Shelburne.  Again  Franklin  got  the  wheels  mov 
ing,  and  a  treaty  was  drafted ;  but  soon  after,  John  Adams,  and  then 
Laurens,  appeared,  and  there  was  more  delay.  Shelburne's  ministry 
was  tottering,  the  conciliatory  spirit  was  growing  weaker,  and  the  fate 
of  the  treaty  became  every  day  more  doubtful.  At  last,  as  November 
was  closing,  Oswald,  who  had  been  re-enforced  by  two  colleagues,  con 
cluded  a  treaty  with  the  American  commissioners.  By  that  treaty  in 
dependence  was  acknowledged,  British  debts  were  to  be  secured,  boun 
daries  were  agreed  to,  a  claim  was  introduced  to  prevent  the  carrying 
away  of  slaves,  and  the  right  to  the  fisheries  was  conceded  to  the 
Americans.  The  success  of  the  treaty  was  chiefly  due  to  Franklin, 

1  I  have  used  these  familiar  terms  which,  as  nearly  as  may  be,  e'xpress  the  jurisdic 
tion  of  the  two  secretaries.  The  Secretaries  of  State  were  for  the  northern  and  south 
ern  departments,  both  having  foreign  relations.  Efforts  had  been  made  to  define 
these  offices,  but  their  powers  were  still  confused  when  Shelburne  and  Fox  took  office. 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  519 

who  managed  the  English  envoys,  played  off  his  somewhat  intracta 
ble  colleagues  against  Vergennes,  and  Vergennes  against  his  colleagues, 
and,  disregarding  the  instructions  of  Congress,  brought  the  negotiation 
to  a  conclusion  before  the  advantage  to  be  gained  from  Shelburne  was 
lost  by  his  fall  from  power. 

Thus  was  the  prize  for  which  the  colonists  had  fought  won  by  war 
and  diplomacy.  Independence  was  forced  upon  America  by  the  con 
dition  and  policy  of  England ;  and  when  it  was  achieved  colonial  his 
tory  was  at  an  end,  and  the  history  of  a  new  nation  began.  The 
place  obtained  in  the  world  by  that  new  nation,  in  the  century  which 
has  elapsed  since  the  Treaty  of  Paris,  is  known  to  all  men.  The  thir 
teen  struggling  colonies  which  then  fringed  the  Atlantic  coast  have 
become  masters  of  a  continent,  and  a  chief  factor  in  the  affairs  of 
civilized  mankind.  They  are  still  working  out  their  uncompleted  des 
tiny  ;  but  the  great  forces  which  have  been  developed,  and  which  in 
their  conflict  have  made  the  history  of  the  United  States,  are  to  be 
found  rooted  deep  down  among  the  people  of  the  colonies  who  found 
ed  the  nation.  The  studies  of  life,  character,  social  condition,  and  po 
litical  habits  contained  in  this  volume  have  been  written  to  little  pur 
pose  if  they  do  not  tell  their  own  story,  and  disclose  the  various  ele 
ments  of  national  history  which  were  bursting  into  life  when  the 
Treaty  of  Paris  was  concluded.  By  the  light  of  colonial  history  we 
can  see  the  causes  which  have  influenced  that  of  the  United  States, 
and  understand  the  inevitable  character  of  the  national  development. 

We  see  thirteen  colonies,  peopled  in  the  main  by  men  of  English 
race,  but  with  a  sufficient  infusion  of  other  blood  to  make  race  preju 
dices  in  the  end  politically  impossible.  Each  colony  had  a  represent 
ative  government,  on  the  general  model  of  King,  Lords,  and  Commons, 
and  the  independent  governments — state  and  federal — were  sure  to 
conform  to  that  model.  The  strongest  quality  of  the  predominant 
English  race  was  its  conservatism ;  and  no  system  was  possible  which 
was  struck  out  at  white-heat  from  the  brains  of  theorists,  and  aimed 
to  be  ideally  perfect.  With  strong  conservatism  and  rooted  political 
habits,  the  men  of  English  race  in  America  used  only  the  materials 
with  which  they  were  familiar,  and  which  had  long  been  tried.  They 
adapted  them  to  new  conditions  with  the  least  possible  change,  and 
in  the  same  spirit  they  clung  to  the  system  of  law  to  which  they 
were  accustomed.  No  one  thought  of  suggesting  codes  and  the  intro 
duction  of  civil  law;  but  the  common  law  of  England  found  a  new 
home  and  a  secure  one  in  America,  and  with  that  common  law  went 


520  HISTORY  OF  THE 

the  strong  respect  for  it  and  for  the  courts  which  administered  it. 
Every  form  of  religious  belief  found  support  among  the  colonists. 
A  state  religion  was  impossible;  a  free  church,  in  a  free  and  wholly 
secular  state,  was  the  only  possible  outcome  of  such  conditions,  and 
was  accepted  in  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 

So  far  there  was  but  one  opinion — so  far  all  was  harmonious;  but 
in  the  social  and  economical  condition  of  the  colonies,  and  in  the  sov 
ereignty  which  each  had  assumed,  there  were  to  be  found  the  sources 
of  political  and  social  conflict.  In  every  colony  there  was  an  aristoc 
racy  ;  but  while  the  system  of  Virginia  was  aristocratic,  that  of  New 
England  was  democratic,  and  in  the  middle  states  the  two  systems 
mingled.  The  people  of  the  south  were  agricultural,  the  leaders 
were  great  landholders,  the  social  and  political  fabric  rested  on  slave 
labor ;  in  New  England  the  people  were  traders,  mechanics,  and  small 
freeholders,  and  free  and  honored  labor  was  the  leading  principle  of 
the  community.  In  the  middle  states  free  labor  prevailed,  and  the 
system  was  at  bottom  like  that  of  New  England ;  but  the  large  for 
eign  elements  made  their  politics  shifting  and  uncertain.  In  all  the 
states  the  separatist  feeling  was  strong,  but  especially  so  in  the  south, 
where  the  aristocracy  who  controlled  the  states  added  class  pride  to 
the  love  of  self-government.  The  pressure  of  war  bound  the  colonies 
together ;  but  even  then  the  separatist  feeling  was  dominant,  and  the 
members  of  the  confederacy  fell  speedily  apart,  while  with  each  suc 
ceeding  year  the  bonds  of  union  became  weaker,  and  the  interest  in  the 
general  government  diminished.  Geographical  isolation  and  communi 
ty  of  race  and  language  were  the  only  natural  aids  to  union.  Against 
them  were  distance,  differences  of  habits  and  pursuits,  local  pride,  a 
people  accustomed  to  little  or  no  government,  with  an  exaggerated 
dislike  of  anything  resembling  external  power,  and  habituated  for 
more  than  a  century  to  incessant  contests  with  those  who  adminis 
tered  their  governments.  The  very  existence  of  the  colonies  as  a  re 
spectable  state  demanded  union,  and  brought  about  the  adoption  of 
the  Constitution.  With  this  beginning,  a  national  sentiment  had  to 
be  created,  and  a  nation  built  up.  In  the  contests  of  parties  it  was 
inevitable  that  the  party  in  power  should  be  a  national  party,  and  the 
party  of  the  minority  should  fall  back  on  the  rights  of  states.  The 
opposition  was  assured  of  a  formidable  weapon  unknown  in  other 
countries. 

But  the  political  parties  which  made  use  of  the  forces  inherent  in 
the  form  of  government  grew  out  of  the  differences  in  the  social  and 


ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA.  521 

economical  conditions  of  the  colonies.  New  England  represented 
democracy  and  progress;  Virginia,  aristocracy  and  conservatism,  and 
they  contended  for  the  possession  of  the  middle  states,  which  held  the 
balance  of  power.  These  two  opposing  elements  go  back  to  Plym 
outh  and  Jamestown.  From  Plymouth  went  forth  one  great  column 
of  civilization  which  controlled  the  States  of  the  West  and  North ; 
from  Jamestown  went  out  the  other  column  to  possess  the  West  and 
South.  Population  increased  rapidly  in  the  North  and  slowly  in  the 
South,  and  the  latter  could  only  maintain  itself  by  dividing  the  power 
of  its  rival.  At  last  this  resource  failed,  and  the  two  hostile  and  ad 
vancing  columns  met  far  out  on  the  plains  of  Kansas.  There  was  a 
moment's  pause,  and  the  battle  raged  along  the  whole  line.  After  a 
bloody  civil  war  of  four  years  the  democracy  of  Plymouth  triumphed, 
and  the  conservative  aristocracy  of  Virginia  was  broken  in  pieces,  to 
gether  with  the  slave  system  which  supported  its  power.  With  the 
close  of  the  war  between  the  states  a  new  era  begins.  Down  to  that 
time  the  history  of  the  United  States  has  followed  the  lines  marked 
out  during  the  period  and  by  the  circumstances  of  colonial  develop 
ment.  Whether  this  will  continue  to  be  the  case,  it  is  as  yet  too 
early  to  say ;  but  to  understand  the  past  history  of  the  United  States 
we  must  know  thoroughly  that  of  the  English  colonies  in  America, 
and  be  able  to  appreciate  the  people  who  made  them  the  foundation 
of  a  great  nation. 


CHRONOLOGICAL    TABLES. 


VIRGINIA. 

1584.  Raleigh's  first  expedition  under  Amidas  and  Barlow  lands  at  Roanoke 
Island. 

1606.  London  and  Plymouth  Companies  chartered. 

1607.  January  1st,  Captain  Newport  sails  from  the  Downs  with*  first  settlers. 
1607.  May  13th,  Landing  at  Jamestown. 

1609.  New  charter  obtained  by  Company.     Gates  and  Somers  sent  out  with  fleet. 

Return  of  Smith.     Percy  acting  Governor. 

1610.  Lord  Delaware  Governor. 

1611.  Sir  Thomas  Dale  Governor,  and  during  presence  of  Gates  deputy. 

1616.  Dale  returns.     Yeardley  deputy. 

1617.  Samuel  Argall  Governor 

1619.  Sir  George  Yeardley  Governor.    June,  House  of  Burgesses  meet.     August, 
First  slaves  landed. 

1621.  Sir  Francis  Wyatt  Governor. 

1622.  Great  massacre  by  Indians. 

1624.  London  Company  for  Virginia  dissolved. 

1626.  Sir  George  Yeardley  Governor. 

1627.  Francis  West  elected  Governor  by  the  Council. 

1628.  John  Pott  elected  Governor  by  the  Council. 

1629.  Sir  John  Harvey  royal  Governor. 
1632.  Trouble  with  settlers  of  Maryland. 

1639.  Harvey  recalled,  and  Sir  Francis  Wyatt  reappointed. 

1642.  Sir  William  Berkeley  Governor. 

1644.  Second  Indian  outbreak  suppressed  by  Berkeley. 

1652.  Surrender  of  Virginia  .to  commissioners  of  Parliament.     Richard  Bennet 
chosen  Governor  by  Burgesses. 

1655.  Edward  Digges  chosen  Governor  by  burgesses. 

1656.  Samuel  Matthews  chosen  Governor  by  burgesses. 

1659.  Death  of  Matthews. 

1660.  Sir  William  Berkeley  elected  Governor  by  the  burgesses,  and  confirmed  by 

Charles  II. 
1663.  Insurrection  by  the  Puritans. 

1674.  Second  insurrection  threatened. 

1675.  Indian  war. 


524  CHRONOLOGICAL   TABLES. 

1676.  Insurrection  headed  by  Nathaniel  Bacon,  Jr.     Death  of  Bacon,  and  sup 

pression  of  rebels  by  Berkeley. 

1677.  Berkeley  recalled.     Sir  Herbert  Jeffreys  Deputy-governor. 

1678.  Sir  Henry  Chicheley  Deputy-governor. 
1680.  Lord  Culpepper  Governor. 

1684.  Lord  Howard  of  Effingham  Governor. 

1690.  Sir  Francis  Nicholson  Deputy -governor. 

1692.  William  and  Mary  College  founded.     Sir  Edmund  Andros  Governor. 

1698.  Sir  Francis  Nicholson  Governor. 

1704.  Earl  of  Orkney  titular  Governor. 

1705.  Nicholson  succeeded  by  Edward  Nott  Lieutenant-governor. 

1706.  Death  of  Nott. 

1708.  Appointment  of  Robert  Hunter  as  Lieutenant-governor.     Never  arrives. 

1710.  Alexander  Spotswood  Lieutenant-governor. 

1716.  Spotswood  crosses  the  Blue  Ridge. 

1722.  Hugh  Drysdale  Lieutenant-governor. 

1726.  Death  of  D»ysdale. 

1727.  William  Gooch  Lieutenant-governor. 
1740.  Virginia  joins  in  Carthagena  expedition. 
1749.  Resignation  of  Gooch. 

1752.  Robert  Dinwiddie  Lieutenant-governor.     Establishment  of  Ohio  Company. 

1753.  Washington  sent  to  Fort  Du  Quesne  to  protest  against  French  encroach 

ments. 

1754.  Surprise  and  death  of  De  Jumonville.     Washington  surrenders  at  Great 

Meadows. 

1755.  Defeat  and  death  of  Braddock. 

1758.  Lord  Loudon  Governor;  never  takes  office.    Francis  Fauquier  Governor  of 

Virginia.     Forbes  captures  Fort  Du  Quesne. 
1763.  The  "  Parson's  cause." 
1765.  Virginia  prevented  from  sending  delegates,  but  supports  action  of  Stamp 

Act  Congress  at  New  York. 


MARYLAND. 

1628.  George  Calvert  (Lord  Baltimore)  visits  Virginia. 

1632.  Charles  I.  gives  charter  of  Maryland  to  Cecilius  Calvert  (Lord  Baltimore). 

1634.  Leonard  Calvert  and  his  followers  land  in  Maryland  and  found  St.  Mary's. 

1635.  Clayborne  driven  from  Kent  Island. 

1638.  Assembly  refuses  to  accept  Lord  Baltimore's  laws. 

1645.  Ingle  and  Clayborne's  rebellion. 

1646.  Leonard  Calvert  returns,  and  re-establishes  the  government. 

1647.  Death  of  Leonard  Calvert.     Thomas  Green  Governor. 

•I   f*A  Q        \ 

(•  William  Stone  Governor. 
io4y.  ) 

1649.  Passage  of  the  Toleration  Act. 

1652.  Maryland  taken  by  Parliamentary  commissioners. 


CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLES.  525 

1655.  Stone  defeated  in  battle  at  Providence  by  Puritans.     Puritan  supremacy. 

1656.  Lord  Baltimore  commissions  Fendall  as  Governor. 

1657.  Proprietary  government  re-established. 

1660.  Philip  Calvert  Governor. 

1661.  Charles  Calvert  Governor. 

1675.  Death  of  Cecilius  Calvert  (Lord  Baltimore). 

1676.  Thomas  Notly  Deputy-governor. 

1681.  Rising  under  Fendall  and  Coode  quelled  by  Lord  Baltimore. 

1684.  Government  intrusted  to  Council,  and  President  William  Joseph. 

1689.  Government  seized  by  Coode  and  the  Protestant  associators. 

1692.  Royal  government  established.     Sir  Lionel  Copley  Governor. 

1694.  Francis  Nicholson  Governor. 

1698.  Nicholas  Blackiston  Governor. 

1703.  John  Seymour  Governor. 

1709.  Death  of  Seymour.    Edward  Lloyd  President  of  Council. 

1714.  John  Hart  Governor. 

1720.  Charles  Calvert  Governor. 

1726.  Benedict  Leonard  Calvert  Governor. 

1731.  Samuel  Ogle  Governor. 

1742.  Thomas  Bladen  Governor. 

1747.  Samuel  Ogle  Governor. 

1751.  Death  of  Charles  (Lord  Baltimore),  and  accession  of  Frederick,  sixth  and 

last  Lord  Baltimore. 

1752.  Death  of  Governor  Ogle. 

1753.  Horatio  Sharpe  Governor. 

1765.  Delegates  from  Maryland  attend  the  Stamp  Act  Congress. 


NORTH  CAROLINA. 

1584.  Raleigh's  first  expedition  under  Amidas  and  Barlow. 
1629.  North  Carolina  granted  by  Charles  I.  to  Sir  Robert  Heath. 
1653.  Virginians  begin  to  settle  on  Roanoke  and  Chowan. 

J?"  i  New  England  men  at  Cape  Fear, 
lool.  ) 

1663.  Charles  II.  grants  the  Carolinas  to  Clarendon  and  others. 

1664.  Under  Sir  John  Yeamans,  men  from  Barbadoes  settle  at  Cape  Fear. 
1667.  Sayle  explores  coast.     Samuel  Stephens  Governor  of  Albemarle. 

1669.  First  Assembly  meets.   "  Fundamental  Constitutions  "  of  Locke  and  Shaftes- 

bury  published. 

1674.  Death  of  Stephens.     Carteret  Governor. 
1676.  Eastchurch  appointed  Governor. 
1678.  Culpepper's  rebellion. 
1683.  Seth  Sothel  Governor. 

1688.  Rebellion  against  Sothel,  who  is  driven  from  the  province. 

1689.  Philip  Ludwell  Governor. 

1693.  Ludwell  succeeded  by  Alexander  Lillington,  and  then  Thomas  Harvey. 


526  CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLES. 

1695.  Joseph  Archdale  Governor. 

1696.  Thomas  Harvey  Deputy-governor. 

1699.  Henderson  Walker  President  of  the  Council. 

1704.  Death  of  Walker.     Robert  Daniel  President. 

1705.  Thomas  Gary  Deputy  -  governor.     Prolonged   struggle  between  Gary  and 

Glover  for  supremacy. 

1710.  Edward  Hyde  Lieutenant-governor. 

1711.  Indian  war  breaks  out. 

1712.  Death  of  Hyde.     Thomas  Pollock  President  of  the  Council. 

1714.  Charles  Eden  Governor. 

1715.  Tuscaroras  broken,  and  peace  made  with  Indians. 
1718.  Virginia  destroys  pirates. 

1722.  Death  of  Eden. 

1724.  George  Burrington  Governor. 

1725.  Sir  Richard  Everard  Governor. 
1727.  Virginia  line  run. 

1731.  Sale  of  proprietary  government  to  the  Crown.     Burrington  Governor. 

1734.  Gabriel  Johnston  Governor. 

1752.  Death  of  Johnston. 

1754.  Arthur  Dobbs  Governor. 

1765*  V  Troubles  between  Dobbs  and  Assembly. 

1765.  Death  of  Dobbs.     William  Tryon  Governor. 

1771.  Battle  of  the  Alamance,  and  suppression  of  the  "  Regulators."    Josiah  Mar» 

tin  Governor. 
1774.  North  Carolina  chooses  delegates  to  the  Congress  at  Philadelphia. 


SOUTH   CAROLINA. 

1562.  Ribault  in  South  Carolina. 

1564.  Expedition  under  Laudonniere. 

1565.  French  settlement  destroyed  by  Menendez.     St.  Augustine  founded. 
1568.  Massacre  of  Spaniards  by  De  Gourgues. 

1663.  South  Carolina  granted  by  Charles  II.  to  Clarendon  and  others. 

1667.  Sayle  explores  the  coast. 

1669.  Sayle  Governor.     Death  of  Sayle. 

1670.  Sir  John  Yeamans  Governor. 
1674.  Joseph  West  Governor. 
1683.  Joseph  Moreton  Governor. 

1686.  [  Kyle'  Moreton>  West>  Quarry,  governors. 
1686.  James  Colleton  Governor. 

1690.  Overthrow  of  Colleton.     Sothel  seizes  government 

1691.  Philip  Ludwell  Governor. 

1692.  Thomas  Smith  Governor. 
1694.  Introduction  of  rice. 


CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLES.  527 

1695.  Joseph  Archdale  Governor. 

1696.  Joseph  Blake  Governor. 
1700.  James  Moore  Governor. 

1703.  Sir  Nathaniel  Johnson  Governor.     Church  controversy. 

1  708.  Colonel  Edward  Tynte  Governor. 

1710.  Death  of  Tynte.     Robert  Gibbes  Governor. 

1712.  Charles  Craven  Governor. 

1715.  Successful  Indian  war  closed. 

1717.  Robert  Johnson  Governor. 

1719.  Popular  rising  against  Johnson.     He  is  deposed,  and  James  Moore  chosen 

Governor  by  convention. 

1721.  Sir  Francis  Nicholson  provisional  Governor. 
1725.  Arthur  Middleton  Governor. 
1729.  South  Carolina  sold  to  the  Crown. 
1731.  Sir  Robert  Johnson  Governor. 
1735.  Death  of  Johnson.     Thomas  Broughton  Governor. 
1737.  William  Bull  Lieutenant-governor. 
1740.  Negro  insurrection.     Spanish  War. 

1742.  Repulse  of  Spaniards  at  Frederica. 

1743.  James  Glen  Governor. 

1753.  Glen  makes  treaty  with  Cherokees. 
1756.  William  Lyttelton  Governor. 

1760.  War  with  the  Cherokees.     William  Bull  Lieutenant-governor. 

1761.  Peace  with  the  Cherokees. 


'    Troubles  with  the  "  Regulators." 
1767.) 

1765.  South  Carolina  chooses  delegates  to  Stamp  Act  Congress. 


GEORGIA. 

1732.  Georgia  granted  to  Oglethorpe' s  association. 

1733.  Oglethorpe  arrives  with  settlers,  and  founds  Savannah. 

1734.  Oglethorpe  returns  to  England. 

1735.  Comes  out  with  "grand  emigration." 

1738.  Raises  troops  in  England. 

1739.  Declares  war  against  Spain. 

1740.  Invades  Florida,  and  forced  to  retreat. 

1742.  Repulses  Spaniards  at  Frederica. 

1743.  Invades  Florida  again.      Returns  to  England.     William  Stephens  Presi 

dent. 
1749.  Slaves  admitted  to  Georgia.     Insurrection  of  Bosomworth. 

1751.  Henry  Parker  President. 

1752.  Trustees  surrender  Georgia  to  the  Crown. 
1754.  John  Reynolds  first  royal  Governor. 
1757.  Henry  Ellis  Lieutenant-governor. 

1760.  James  Wright  Governor. 


528  CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLES. 

1765.  Wright  prevents  choice  of  delegates  to  Stamp  Act  Congress. 
1768.  Georgia  supports  the  Massachusetts  circular. 


DELAWARE. 

1623.  First  post  established  on  the  Delaware  by  the  Dutch. 

1631.  Swaanendael  founded. 

1632.  Swaanendael  destroyed  by  the  Indians. 

1635.  Virginians  driven  from  the  Delaware  by  the  Dutch. 

1637,  Swedes  land  in  Delaware  under  Minuit. 

1641.  Hollandaere  Governor.     New  Englanders  driven  off. 

1643.  John  Printz  Governor. 

1646.  Troubles  with  the  Dutch. 

1651.  Stuyvesant  builds  Fort  Casimir. 

1653.  John  Pappegoia  Governor. 

1654.  John  Rysingh  takes  Fort  Casimir,  and  assumes  government. 

1655.  Stuyvesant  takes  Fort  Casimir,  and  establishes  Dutch  power  in  Delaware. 

1656.  Delaware  sold  to  city  of  Amsterdam. 

1657.  Amsterdam  sends  out  settlers. 

1663.  Dutch  West  India  Company  cede  all  South  river  to  city.    Delaware  seized 
by  Sir  Robert  Carr. 

1673.  Delaware  reconquered  by  the  Dutch. 

1674.  Delaware  ceded  to  England  by  treaty  of  Westminster. 
1682.  Delaware  surrendered  to  Penn. 


PENNSYLVANIA. 

1681.  Charles  II.  grants  Pennsylvania  to  William  Penn. 

1682.  Penn  comes  to  Pennsylvania. 

1684.  After  organizing  government  and  founding  Philadelphia,  returns  to  England. 

Thomas  Lloyd  President  of  Council. 
1688.  Blackwell  Governor.    Replaced  by  Thomas  Lloyd. 
1691.  Troubles  caused  by  George  Keith.     Union  with  Delaware  dissolved. 

1693.  Penn  deprived  of  government  of  Pennsylvania,  and  Benjamin  Fletcher  sent 

out  as  royal  Governor. 

1694.  Penn  recovers  his  government.     Markham  Deputy-governor. 
1699.  Penn  sails  for  America. 

1701.  Grants  a  new  charter  to  Pennsylvania,  and  returns  to  England.    Andrew 

Hamilton  Deputy-governor. 

1703.  Death  of  Hamilton.    John  Evans  Deputy-governor. 
1709.  Removal  of  Evans.     Charles  Gookin  Deputy-governor. 
1712.  Penn  attempts  to  sell  the  province  to  the  Crown  ;  fails  through  ill-health. 

1717.  Recall  of  Gookin.     Sir  William  Keith  Governor. 

1718.  Death  of  Penn. 


CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLES.  529 

3723.  Paper  money  issued. 

1726.  Keith  removed.     Patrick  Gordon  Deputy-governor. 

1736.  Death  of  Gordon.     James  Logan  President  of  the  Council.          » 

1738.  George  Thomas  Deputy-governor. 

1739.  Difficulties  from  Spanish  war  between  Governor  and  Assembly. 
1746.  Kesignation  of  Thomas.     Anthony  Palmer  President  of  the  Council. 

1749.  James  Hamilton  Deputy -governor. 

1750.  Franklin  a  leader  in  the  Assembly. 

1754.  Robert  Hunter  Morris  Deputy-governor.     Continued  quarrels  with  the  As- 

sembly. 
1756.  William  Denny  Deputy-governor. 

1759.  Capture  of  Fort  Du  Quesne. 

1760.  James  Hamilton  Deputy-governor. 

1762.  Indian  war. 

1763.  Victory  of  Bouquet  and  the  Paxton  Massacre. 

1764.  Franklin  agent  in  England  for  Pennsylvania. 

1765.  Pennsylvania  Committee  at  the  Stamp  Act  Congress. 


NEW  JERSEY. 

1664.  Grant  of  New  Jersey  to  Berkeley  and  Carteret. 

1665.  Philip  Carteret  Governor;  comes  out  with  emigrants. 
1668.  First  Assembly. 

1672.  James  Carteret  heads  insurrection  and  seizes  governorship. 

1673.  James  Carteret  deposed.     Lord  Berkeley  sells  his  share.     Conquest  by  the 

Dutch. 
16?4.  Restored  to  England. 

1675.  Philip  Carteret  returns  as  Governor. 

1676.  Andros  arrests  Fenwick  at  Salem. 

1677.  Large  Quaker  emigration  under  Byllinge.     Settlement  in  West  Jersey. 

1678.  Fenwick  arrested  by  Andros  at  Salem.    Philip  Carteret  seized  by  Andros  in 

East  Jersey. 

1680.  Sir  William  Jones  awards  West  Jersey  to  the  Quakers. 

1681.  Philip  Carteret  reinstated.     Repels  Brockholst. 

16™'  \  Sale  of  Carteret  interest  (East  Jersey)  to  Penn  and  others. 

1683.  ) 

1684.  Gawen  Lawrie  Deputy-governor  of  East  Jersey. 

1688.  Surrender  of  New  Jersey  forced  by  the  King. 

1689.  Andros  Governor-general. 

1692.  Andrew  Hamilton  Deputy-governor. 

1698.  Jeremiah  Basse  Deputy-governor. 

1699.  Andrew  Hamilton  reappointed  Deputy-governor  for  West  Jersey. 

1702.  Proprietors  surrender  New  Jersey  to  the  Queen.     Lord  Cornbury  Governor. 

1708.  Recall  of  Lord  Cornbury.     Lord  Lovelace  Governor. 

1709.  Death  of  Lovelace.     Richard  Ingoldsby  Lieutenant-governor. 

1710.  Robert  Hunter  Governor. 

34 


530  CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLES. 

1720.  William  Burnet  Governor. 
1728.  John  Montgomerie  Governor. 

1731.  Deatfi  of  Montgomerie.    Lewis  Morris  President  of  the  Council. 

1732.  William  Cosby  Governor. 
1736.  Death  of  Cosby. 

1738.  New  Jersey  separated  from  government  of  New  York,  and  Lewis  Morris 
Governor. 

1746.  Death  of  Morris.     John  Hamilton  President  of  the  Council. 

1747.  Death  of  Hamilton.    John  Reading  President  of  the  Council. 

1748.  Jonathan  Belcher  Governor. 

1757.  Death  of  Belcher. 

1758.  Francis  Bernard  Governor. 

1760.  Thomas  Boone  Governor.    Josiah  Hardy  Governor. 

1762.  William  Franklin  Governor. 

1765.  Delegates  from  convention  sent  to  Stamp  Act  Congress. 


NEW  YORK. 

1609.  Henry  Hudson  at  Sandy  Hook. 

1614.  Fort  Nassau  built  near  Albany.     Voyages  to  east  and  south. 

1615.  Formation  of  New  Netherland  Company  with  charter  for  three  years. 
1621.  Dutch  West  India  Company  chartered. 

1623.  Settlers  sent  out  by  Company.     Cornells  Jacobsen  May  first  Director. 

1624.  William  Verhulst  Director. 
1626.  Peter  Minuit  Director. 

1629.  Establishment  of  Patroons.  ^ 

1632.  Minuit  returns  to  Holland. 

1633.  Wouter  Yan  Twiller  Director. 

1637.  Yan  Twiller  removed. 

1638.  William  Kieft  Director. 

1640.  The  Company  opens  New  Netherlands  to  free-trade. 

1641.  Establishment  and  election  of  "twelve  men." 

1643.  War  with  the  Indians.     "Eight  men"  chosen. 

1644.  Underhill  defeats  Indians  with  great  slaughter  in  Connecticut. 

1645.  Peace  with  Indians.     Removal  of  Kieft.     Revision  of  government. 

1647.  Arrival  of  Peter  Stuyvesant  as  Director-general.     "Nine  men"  chosen  by 
representatives  of  the  people. 

1649.  New  board  of  "  nine  men  "  appointed  to  appeal  to  Holland. 

1650.  Treaty  and  settlement  of  boundary  with  New  England. 

1651.  Stuyvesant  builds  Fort  Casimir,  on  the  Delaware. 

1652.  Burgher  government  established. 

1654.  English  invasion  prevented  by  peace  made  between  Cromwell  and  States- 

general. 

1655.  Stuyvesant  conquers  the  Swedes,  and  becomes  master  of  Delaware.    Indian 

war. 
1658.  Indian  war  breaks  out  at  Esopus. 


CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLES.  531 

1660.  Trouble  with  Lord  Baltimore. 

1662.  Loss  of  Long  Island  and  northern  territory  by  Connecticut  charter. 

1664.  English  conquest  of  New  Netherlands.     Richard  Nicolls  Governor  of  New 

York. 
1668.  Nicolls  returns  to  England.    Francis  Lovelace  Governor. 

1673.  The  Dutch  take  New  York.     Anthony  Colve  Governor. 

1674.  New  York  ceded  to  England  by  the  treaty  of  Westminster.     Edmund  An- 

dros  Governor. 

1680.  Andros  recalled.     Anthony  Brockholst  Lieutenant-governor. 
1683.  Thomas  Dongan  Governo  . 
1685.  James  revokes  his  charter,  or  "Duke's  laws." 

1688.  New  York  annexed  to  New  England.     Andros  Governor-general. 

1689.  Rising  under  Leisler.     Expulsion  of  Nicholson. 

1690.  French  war.     Destruction  of  Schenectady. 

1691.  Henry  Sloughter  Governor.     Leisler  surrenders,  and  is  executed.  'Death  of 

Sloughter.     Richard  Ingoldsby  Lieutenant-governor. 

1692.  Benjamin  Fletcher  Governor. 
1698.  Lord  Bellomont  Governor. 

1701.  Death  of  Bellomont.     John  Nanfan  Lieutenant-governor. 

1702.  Lord  Cornbury  Governor. 

1708.  Removal  of  Cornbury.     Lord  Lovelace  Governor. 

1709.  Death  of  Lovelace.     Ingoldsby  Lieutenant-governor. 

1710.  Robert  Hunter  Governor. 

1711.  First  negro  plot. 
1713.  Peace  with  France. 

1719.  Hunter  retires. 

1720.  William  Burnet  Governor. 

1727.  Burnet  transferred  to  Massachusetts. 

1728.  John  Montgomerie  Governor. 

1731.  Death  of  Montgomerie.    Rip  Van  Dam  President  of  the  Council. 

1732.  William  Cosby  Governor.     Zenger  prosecuted  for  libel. 

1736.  Death  of  Cosby.     Contest  between  Van  Dam  and  George  Clarke  for  posses 
sion  of  government.     Clarke  commissioned  as  Lieutenant-governor. 
1741.  Second  and  great  negro  plot. 
1743.  Admiral  George  Clinton  Governor. 
1746.  Indian  war. 
1748.  Peace  of  Aix-la-Chapelle. 

1753.  Clinton  retires.     Sir  Danvers  Osborn  Governor;  kills  himself.     James  De 

Lancey  Lieutenant-governor. 

1754.  Congress  of  governors  at  Albany.     Franklin's  plan  of  union. 

1755.  Johnson  defeats  Baron  Dieskau  at  Fort  George.     Sir  Charles  Hardy  Gov 

ernor. 

1756.  Montcalm  takes  Oswego. 

1757.  Hardy  retires.    De  Lancey  Lieutenant-governor.     Montcalm  captures  Fort 

William  Henry. 

1758.  Abercrombie  repulsed  at  Ticonderoga.     Bradstreet  takes  Fort  Frontenac. 

1759.  Johnson  takes  Fort  Niagara.     French  retreat  before  Amherst  to  Isle-aux> 

Noix. 


532  CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLES. 

1760.  Death  of  De  Lancey.     Cadwallader  Golden  Lieutenant-governor.    Amherst 

takes  Montreal. 

1761.  General  Monckton  Governor. 

1762.  Monckton  resigns.     Colden  Lieutenant-governor.    Peace  with  France. 
1765.  Stamp  Act  Congress  meets  in  New  York. 


MASSACHUSETTS. 

1620.  Pilgrims  sail  from  Delfthaven. 

land  at  Cape  Cod' 


land  at  Plvmouth- 
1623.  Dorchester  Company  establishes  a  fishing  station  at  Cape  Ann. 
1626.  Conant  and  others  remove  to  and  settle  at  Naumkeag. 

1628.  Land  granted  to  second  Dorchester  Company.     John  Endicott,  one  of  the 

patentees,  comes  out. 

1629.  Charter  obtained  for  Governor  and  Company  of  Massachusetts  Bay. 

1  630.  John  Wiuthrop  Governor.     Arrives  with  his  company  in  Massachusetts. 
1631.  Second  general  court.     Only  members  of  churches  to  have  votes. 
1634.  Troubles  begin  with  England. 
1636.  Roger  Williams  banished  from  Massachusetts.    Harvard  College  founded. 

i  Henry  Vane  Governor. 

1638.  Expulsion  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson. 

1643.  Establishment  of  New  England  Confederacy. 

1647.  Establishment  of  common  schools. 

1652.  Annexation  of  Maine. 

1659.  Quakers  hung  in  Boston. 

1660.  Complimentary  address  to  Charles  II. 

1664.  Arrival  of  the  royal  commissioners  in  Boston. 

1666.  Royal  commissioners  baffled,  their  power  denied,  and  leave  Boston. 

1675.  Outbreak  of  Philip's  war. 

1676.  Death  of  Philip. 

1677.  Peace  with  eastern  Indians,  and  end  of  the  war.    Edward  Randolph  sent 

out  as  agent  by  Lords  of  Trade. 

1683.  Quo  warranto  issued  against  charter. 

1684.  Charter  vacated. 

1685.  Provisional  government.    Joseph  Dudley  President. 

1686.  Sir  Edmund  Andros  Governor-general. 

1688.  Indian  war  at  the  east. 

1689.  Popular  rising.     Andros  seized  at  Boston  and  imprisoned.     Old  charter 

government  provisionally  re-established. 

1691.  A  new  charter  granted. 

1692.  Sir  William  Phips  Governor. 

1695.  Phips  recalled.  Returns  to  England.  William  Stoughton  Lieutenant-governor. 
1697.  Earl  of  Bellomont  appointed  Governor. 


CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLES.  533 

1699.  Bellomont  arrives  in  Boston. 

1701.  Death  of  Bellomont.    Stoughton  Lieutenant-governor.    Death  of  Stoughton, 

1702.  Joseph  Dudley  Governor. 

1703.  Outbreak  of  Queen  Anne's  war. 

1707.  Failure  of  Dudley's  expedition  against  Port  Royal. 

1710.  Capture  of  Port  Royal. 

1711.  Failure  of  Hill  and  Walker's  expedition. 

1715.  William  Tailer  Lieutenant-governor.     Dudley  removed  by  death  of  sov- 

ereign. 

1716.  Samuel  Shute  Governor. 

1721.  War  with  eastern  Indians  under  Rasle. 

1723.  Shute  goes  to  England  for  aid  against  general  court.  .  William  Dummer 

Lieutenant-governor. 

1724.  Death  of  Rasle. 

1726.  Peace  with  Indians. 

1727.  The  explanatory  charter. 

1728.  William  Burnet  Governor. 

1729.  Death  of  Burnet.    Dummer  Lieutenant-governor. 

1730.  Jonathan  Belcher  Governor. 

1735.  House  prevails  on  the  salary  question. 

1741.  Recall  of  Belcher.    William  Shirley  Governor. 

1745.  Louisburg  taken  by  New  England  army. 

1755.  Shirley  commands  the  expedition  against  Oswego. 

1756.  Shirley  commander-in-chief.     Recalled. 

1757.  Thomas  Pownall  Governor. 

1758.  Defeat  of  Abercrombie  at  Ticonderoga. 

1759.  -Fall  of  Quebec. 

1760.  Montreal  taken  by  Amherst.     Francis  Bernard  Governor. 

1761.  The  writs  of  assistance. 

1765.  Massachusetts  invites  the  other  colonies  to  a  congress,  and  sends  a  delega* 
tion  to  New  York 


CONNECTICUT. 

1635.  John  Winthrop  establishes  a  post  at  Saybrook. 

1636.  Emigration  from  Newtown  to  Connecticut  under  Hooker. 

1638.  Colony  of  New  Haven  founded. 

1639.  Constitutions  adopted  by  Connecticut  and  New  Haven. 
1643.  New  England  Confederacy  formed. 

1650.  Boundary  treaty  with  Stuyvesant. 

1657.  John  Winthrop  Governor. 

1662.  Charles  II.  grants  charter  to  Connecticut. 

1664.  Consolidation  of  Connecticut  and  New  Haven. 

1665.  Visit  of  the  royal  commissioners. 
1675.  Duke's  claim  repelled. 

1686.  Quo  warranto  against  the  charter. 

1687.  Andros  at  Hartford  takes  possession  of  the  government 


534  CHRONOLOGICAL   TABLES. 

1690.  Charter  government  re-established. 

1707.  Death  of  Fitz-John  Winthrop.    Gurdon  Saltonstall  Governor. 

1713.  Settlement  of  northern  boundary. 

1724.  Death  of  Saltonstall.     Joseph  Talcott  Governor. 

1741.  Death  of  Talcott.     Jonathan  Law  Governor. 

1745.  The  Connecticut  contingent  at  Louisburg. 

1765.  Resistance  to  Stamp  Act,  and  delegates  sent  to  Congress  at  New  York. 


RHODE  ISLAND. 

1636.  Roger  Williams  founds  Providence. 

1638.  Arrival  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson  and  her  friends. 

1639.  Coddington  founds  Newport. 

1643.  Williams  goes  to  England  for  a  charter.     Gorton  taken  prisoner  to  Boston. 

1644.  Williams  returns  with  patent.     Gorton  goes  to  England. 

1647.  Government  established  under  patent. 

1648.  Gorton  returns,  and  names  Shawomet  Warwick.    End  of  the  Gortonian  dis 

turbances.  / 

1651.  Coddington  obtains  a  commission  in  England,  and  sets  up  a  government. 
Williams  goes  to  England  for  a  new  charter. 

1653.  Gorton  President. 

1654.  Williams  returns  with  a  letter  from  Vane,  and  is  chosen  President  under 

patent. 
1657.  Defeat  of  Williams.     Benedict  Arnold  President. 

1663.  Agreement  between  John  Clarke  and  the  younger  Winthrop.     Clarke  ob 

tains  a  charter  for  Rhode  Island. 

1664.  Establishment  of  the  charter  government. 

1665.  Visit  of  royal  commissioners. 
1672.  Visit  of  George  Fox. 


1686.  Quo  warranto  issued  against  charter.    Andros  Governor-general. 

1690.  Old  charter  government  re-established. 

1697.  Samuel  Cranston  Governor. 

1724.  Limitation  of  the  franchise. 

1727.  Opposition  of  Governor  Jenckes  to  paper  money. 

1747.  Settlement  of  the  northern  boundary. 

1764.  Resistance- to  Navigation  Act. 

1765.  Delegates  sent  to  Stamp  Act  Congress. 


NEW  HAMPSHIRE. 

1623.  Mason  and  Gorges  found  settlements. 

1629.  Mason  and  Gorges  divide,  and  Mason  obtains  New  Hampshire. 
1635.  Death  of  Mason,  and  abandonment  by  his  heirs  of  attempts  to  establish  a 
colony. 


CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLES.  535 

1638.  Arrival  of  Wheelwright  and  his  friends. 

1641.  New  Hampshire  united  to  Massachusetts. 

1660.  Revival  of  Mason  claim. 

1676.  Law-officers  of  the  Crown  sustain  Mason  claim. 

1677.  English  courts  annul  jurisdiction  of  Massachusetts. 

1679.  Royal  government  established. 

1680.  John  Cutts  President. 

1681.  Death  of  Cutts. 

1682.  Edward  Cranfield  royal  Governor. 

1685.  Departure  of  Cranfield.    Barefoot  Deputy-governor.    United  to  Massachu 

setts  under  Dudley. 

1686.  Andros  Governor-general. 

1690.  United  to  Massachusetts  under  old  charter  government. 
1692.  Allen  buys  up  Mason  claim.     John  Usher  Lieutenant-governor. 
1697.  Thomas  Partridge  Lieutenant-governor. 
1699.  Bellomont  Governor. 

1702.  Allen's  claims  carried  on  appeal  to  England.     Dudley  Governor. 

1703.  Usher  Lieutenant-governor.     Replaces  Partridge. 

1715.  Death  of  Allen.    Abandonment  of  suit  to  establish  claim.    Shute  GovernoR 

George  Vaughan  Lieutenant-governor. 

1717.  Removal  of  Vaughan.     John  Wentworth  Lieutenant-governor. 
1728.  Burnet  Governor. 

1730.  Belcher  Governor. 

1731.  David  Dunbar  Lieutenant-governor. 

1741.  New  Hampshire  finally  separated  from  Massachusetts.     Benning  Went 

worth  Governor. 
1765.  Resistance  to  Stamp  Act,  but  no  delegates  sent  to  New  York. 


THE   UNITED   COLONIES. 

1765.  The  Stamp  Act  Congress  meets  in  New  York. 

1766.  Repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act. 

1767.  Suspension  of  New  York  Assembly.     Townshend's  revenue  bills. 

1768.  Massachusetts  petitions  against  the  revenue  acts.     Refuses  to  rescind  her 

resolution,  and  the  court  is  dissolved.  Boston  calls  a  convention.  Ar 
rival  of  British  troops. 

1769.  Virginia  resolutions  against  taxation. 

1770.  The  Boston  massacre,  and  removal  of  the  regiments.    Repeal  of  all  the  rev 

enue  acts  except  that  laying  a  duty  on  tea.  Resistance  slackens  in  the 
colonies. 

1771.  Hutchinson's  controversy  with  the  general  court  as  to  the  power  of  Parlia 

ment. 

1772.  Renewal  of  resistance  at  the  south.     Burning  of  the  Gaspee. 

1773.  Hutchinson  discusses  further  the  power  of  Parliament.     Committees  of  cor 

respondence  advised  by  Virginia.  Publication  of  the  letters  of  Hutchin 
son  and  Oliver.  The  East  India  Company  authorized  to  export  tea  to  the 
colonies.  Destruction  of  the  tea  at  Boston  and  elsewhere. 


536  CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLES. 

1774.  Wedderburn's  attack  on  Franklin.    Passage  of  the  Boston  Port  Bill  and 

other  penal  acts.     General  Gage  civil  Governor  of  Massachusetts. 
June.    Massachusetts  demands  a  Congress. 
Sept.    Congress  meets. 

1775.  Chatham's  plan  of  compromise  rejected,  and  armies  sent  from  England. 
April.   Lexington  and  Concord. 

May.  Allen  takes  Ticonderoga  and  Crown  Point.     Second  Congress  meets. 

June.  Battle  of  Bunker  Hill. 

Julyc  Washington  takes  command  of  the  army.     Siege  of  Boston. 

"  The  expedition  against  Canada,  and  defeat  of  Americans  at  Quebec. 

1776.  Evacuation  of  Boston.     Americans  retreat  from  Canada.     Defeat  of  Loy 

alists  in  North  Carolina.     Repulse  of  British  at  Charleston. 
July  4.  Declaration  of  Independence  adopted  and  ordered  to  be  printed.     Arrival 

of  British  army. 

Aug.     Washington  retreats  from  Long  Island,  and  evacuates  New  York. 
Oct.      Battle  of  White  Plains. 
Dec.     Battle  of  Trenton. 

1777'  I  Battle  of  Princeton. 
Jan.  } 

Sept.  Battle  of  the  Brandywine.     Howe  takes  Philadelphia. 

Oct.  Battle  of  Germantown.     Surrender  of  Burgoyne. 

Dec.  Washington  at  Valley  Forge. 

1778.  The  Conway  cabal.     Treaty  of  alliance  with  France. 

June.  Battle  of  Monmouth  Court-house. 

July.  Battle  of  Newport. 

Dec.  Defeat  of  Americans  in  Georgia,  and  capture  of  Savannah. 

,,     '  (•  Prevost  marches  to  Charleston  and  retreats. 
May.  J 

July.    Wayne  takes  Stony  Point. 

Oct.     Americans  and  French  repulsed  at  Savannah. 

1780, 


'  }•  Charleston  surrenders  to  Clinton. 
May.  J 


Aug.  Battle  of  Camden. 

Sept.  Arnold's  treason. 

Oct.  Battle  of  King's  Mountain. 

Dec.  Greene  takes  command  in  southern  department. 

1581'  I  Battle  of  the  Cowpens. 
Jan.  J 

March.  Battle  of  Guilford  Court-house.     Cornwallis  marches  north. 
April.    Battle  of  Hobkirk's  Hill. 
Sept,    Battle  of  Eutaw. 
Oct.     Surrender  of  Cornwallis  at  Yorktown. 


1782     ) 

H  JJL  {  Resignation  of  Lord  North. 


July.    Evacuation  of  Savannah. 

Nov.   Treaty  of  peace  with  Great  Britain  signed  at  Paris, 


INDEX. 


A. 

ABEROROMBIE,  General,  defeated  at  Ticon- 
deroga,  309,  370. 

Acadia,  pillaged  by  Argall,  8.  D'Aulnay  and 
La  Tour  in,  352.  Conquest  of,  369. 

Acadians  in  Pennsylvania,  234, 235.  Expul 
sion  of,  369. 

Adams,  John,  description  of  trial  of  writs  of 
assistance,  417.  Testimony  as  to  loyalty 
of  New  England,  474.  Delegate  to  Con 
gress  ;  presides  at  Boston  town-meeting, 
490.  Moves  election  of  Washington  as 
commander-in-chief,  494.  Seconds  resolu 
tion  for  independence.  498.  Leads  in  de 
bate,  499.  Mission  to  Holland,  517.  Peace 
commissioner,  518. 

Adams,  Samuel,  draws  petition  to  King,  and 
resolve  for  union,  479.  Demands  with 
drawal  of  troops  from  Hutchinson,  482. 
Founds  committees  of  correspondence, 
485.  Leads  in  discussion  of  powers  of  Par 
liament  with  Hutchinson,  486.  Delegate 
to  Congress,  490. 

Albany,  centre  of  fur- trade,  313.  Arms  in 
church,  328.  Description  of,  331, 332. 

Allen,  Ethan,  captures  Ticonderoga,  493. 
Taken  prisoner  at  Montreal,  495. 

Allen,  Samuel,  buys  up  Mason  claim  ;  Gov 
ernor  of  New  Hampshire,  400.  Land  suits; 
death  ;  claim  not  pressed  by  his  heirs,  402. 

Altham,  Lord ;  indented  servant,  242. 

Ames,  Fisher,  conversation  with  Sumuer  as 
to  suffrage,  445. 

Amherst,  Sir  Jeffrey,  drives  French  back  to 
Isle-aux-Noix,  309.  Captures  Montreal, 
310,  370. 

Andre,  Major,  hung  as  a  spy,  511. 

Andros,  Sir  Edmund,  Governor  of  Virginia, 
25.  Suppresses  Fen  wick  in  Delaware,  209. 
Attempts  to  gain  control  of  New  Jersey, 
265.  Governor-general  of  New  Jersey,  267. 
Receives  New  York  from  Dutch,  297.  Gov 


ernor  of  New  York,  297,  298.  Governor- 
general  of  New  York;  government  over 
thrown,  299.  Governor-general  in  Massa 
chusetts,  359.  Deposed,  and  made  pris 
oner,  360.  Dealings  with  Connecticut  as 
Governor  of  New  York,  378.  Governor- 
general  of  Connecticut,  379.  Visit  to  Hart 
ford,  380.  Governor-general  of  Rhode  Isl 
and,  392;  of  New  Hampshire,  400.  Seizure 
of  old  South  Church,  426. 

Anglesea  Peerage  Case,  70. 

Annapolis,  foundation  and  description  of, 
118, 119.  Society  in,  129, 130. 

Annesley,  James,  case  of,  70. 

Antiuomians  in  New  Hampshire,  397. 

Apthorp,  East,  Rev.,  Episcopal  minister  in 
Cambridge,  427. 

Arbuthnot,  Admiral,  commands  British  fleet 
at  Charleston,  510. 

Archdale,  John,  Governor  of  North  Carolina, 
139, 140 ;  of  South  Carolina,  162. 

Argall,  Samuel,  history  and  character  of; 
his  administration,  8.  Recalled,  9. 

Arlington,  Lord,  grant  of  Virginia  to,  19. 

Armstrong,  John,  defeats  Indians  at  Kittan- 
ning,  223. 

Arnold,  Benedict,  President  at  Providence, 
389.  Governor  of  Rhode  Island  under 
charter,  390. 

Arnold,  Benedict,  partisan  leader  on  the 
lakes,  495.  Commands  eastern  expedition 
against  Quebec;  repulsed  and  wounded, 
496.  Treason  of,  511.  In  Virginia,  515. 

Ashurst,  Sir  Henry,  defends  New  England 
charter,  382. 

Aspinwall,  William,  secretary  at  foundation 
of  Portsmouth,  Rhode  Island,  385. 

Assanpink,  retreat  of  Americans  from,  504. 

Atherton  Company,  relations  of,  with  Con 
necticut,  378.  With  Rhode  Island,  390. 

Augusta,  Georgia,  description  of,  201.  Taken 
by  British,  509. 


538 


INDEX. 


BAOON,  NATHANIEL,  Jr. ;  character ;  inarches 
against  Indians,  20.  Rebellion  and  death, 
and  causes  of  failure,  21, 22. 

Baltimore,  foundation  and  description  of, 
119. 

Baptists,  in  Virginia,  57 ;  in  Rhode  Island 
and  Massachusetts,  354,  388. 

Barclay,  Robert,  Governor  of  East  Jersey, 
266. 

Barefoot,  Walter,  deputy  -  collector  in  New 
Hampshire,  398.  In  charge  of  fort  at 
Portsmouth,  399.  Deputy  -  governor  of 
New  Hampshire,  400. 

Barras,  De,  Count,  leaves  Newport  and  joins 
De  Grasse,  515. 

Bartram,  John  ;  his  farm,  249.  Botanist, 
256. 

Basse,  Jeremiah,  Governor  of  East  and  West 
Jersey,  267. 

Baum,  Colonel,  sent  against  Bennington, 
506.  Defeated,  507. 

Bayard,  Nicholas,  leader  of  aristocratic  par 
ty  in  New  York,  defeated,  302. 

Bay  Psalm-book,  468. 

Baxter,  George,  heads  opposition  to  Stuyve- 
saut  on  Long  Island,  293.  Commissioner 
to  settle  Long  Island  affairs,  295. 

Beaumarchais,  Carou  de,  obtains  supplies  for 
America,  504. 

Belcher,  Jonathan,  Governor  of  New  Jersey, 
271,  272.     Description  of  people  of  New 
Jersey,  273.     Governor  of  Massachusetts, 
366.     Removal,  367.     Governor   of   New 
Hampshire,  403.     Contests  with  Dunbar 
boundary  line ;  removal,  404.    Funeral  o 
wife  of,  463. 

Beldenites,  sect  in  Rhode  Island,  428. 

Bellingham,  Richard,  Governor  of  Massachu 
setts,  351.  Supports  persecution  of  Quak 
ers,  354.  Governor,  356. 

Bellomont,  Earl  of,  Governor  of  New  York, 
suppresses  piracy,  301,  302,  324.  Governor 
of  Massachusetts,  362.  In  Rhode  Island, 
and  charges  against  that  colony,  393.  Gov 
ernor  of  New  Hampshire,  401. 

Bemus's  Heights,  battle  of,  507. 

Senezet,  Anthony ;  efforts  against  slavery, 
241. 

Ben  net,  Richard,  Governor  of  Virginia ;  sub 
dues  Maryland,  17, 103. 

Benuingtou,  battle  of,  507. 

Berkeley,  Lord,  obtains  grant  of  New  Jer 
sey,  263.  Sells  his  share,  264. 

Berkeley,  Sir  William,  Governor  of  Virginia ; 
early  administration,  15.  Invites  Charles 
II.  to  Virginia,  16.  Elected  Governor  by 
Assembly,  18.  His  second  administration, 


19.  Conduct  in  Bacon's  rebellion,  20,  21. 
Character  compared  with  Bacon's,  21. 
Cruelty  to  opponents,  and  death,  23.  Gov 
ernment  of  North  Carolina,  135. 

Bernard,  Francis,  Governor  of  New  Jersey, 
272 ;  of  Massachusetts,  370.  Opposes  Stamp 
Act  circular,  372.  Opposition  to  general 
court,  479.  Quarrel  with  general  court; 
leaves  Massachusetts,  481. 

Beverley,  Robert,  persecuted  by  Lord  Cul- 
pepper,  24. 

Beverley,  Robert,  the  younger,  historian,  87. 

Bishop,  Bridget,  attacked  for  keeping  pub 
lic-house,  453. 

Blackwell,  John,  Governor  of  Pennsylvania, 
213. 

Blake,  Joseph,  Governor  of  South  Carolina, 
162. 

Blair,  James,  Rev.,  obtains  charter  of  coi- 
lege ;  character;  quarrels  with  Andros  and 
Nicholson,  25.  Contest  with  Spotswood, 
27.  Efforts  for  college,  74, 75. 

Block,  Adrian,  Dutch  explorer,  285. 

Block  Island  ravaged  by  Endic'nt,  349. 

Blommaert,  Samuel,  patroou,  286. 

Blue  Ridge,  Spotswood's  expedition  across 
the,  28. 

Bollau,  William,  agent  of  Massachusetts, 
368. 

Boone,  Thomas,  Governor  of  South  Carolina, 
170 ;  of  New  Jersey,  272. 

Boscaweu,  Admiral,  at  siege  of  Louisbnrg, 
309. 

Bosomworth,  Thomas,  heads  Indian  rising 
u  Georgia,  195. 

Boston,  settlement  of,  345.  Hostility  to 
Phips,  361.  Riots  against  impressment, 
36S.  Bar  of,  419.  Introduction  of  inocu 
lation,  420.  Episcopal  Church  in,  426,  427. 
Sunday  in,  430.  Church  music  in,  431. 
Duelling  in,  437.  Popular  feeling  against 
Frankland  for  keeping  a  mistress,  438. 
Pirates  in,  439.  Pauperism,  441.  Slaves  in, 
442.  Description  of,  456.  Vehicles  in,  454. 
Inns,  455.  Population,  456.  Appearance, 
457.  Houses;  society,  458.  Dress,  459. 
Amusements,  460.  Latin  school,  465. 
Newspapers,  471.  Stamp  Act  riot,  476. 
Town -meeting  to  oppose  Hillsborough ; 
arrival  of  troops,  480.  "  Massacre  "  by  sol 
diers,  482.  Converted  to  a  military  sta 
tion,  483.  Meeting  to  oppose  landing  of 
tea,  486.  The  destruction  of  the  tea,  487. 
Punished  by  Lord  North,  488.  Siege  be 
gins,  493.  Evacuation  of,  495. 

Botetourt,  Lord,  Governor  of  Virginia;  en 
try  of,  into  office,  83.  Dissolves  Burgesses, 
481. 


INDEX. 


539 


Bonqnet,  Colonel  Henry,  defeats  Indians  iu 
Pennsylvania,  225. 

Boylston,  Zabdiel,  Dr.,  introduces  inocula 
tion,  420. 

Braddock,  Edward,  his  expedition,  33,  307. 
Dei'eat  and  death,  and  effect  oil  colonists, 
34.  Effect  in  Pennsylvania,  222. 

Bradford,  Andrew,  printer  and  bookseller, 
255. 

Bradford,  William,  questions  Dutch  title, 
286.  Writes  diary,  342.  Diary  of,  467. 

Bradstreet,  Anne,  poetry  of,  468. 

Bradstreet,  John,  Colonel,  defeats  French 
iu  New  York,  308.  Captures  Fort  Frou- 
teuac,  309. 

Bradstreet,  Samuel,  sent  with  address  to 
England,  355. 

Bradstreet,  Simon,  Governor  of  Massachu 
setts,  appearance  of,  443. 

Brandywine,  battle  of  the,  505. 

Brent,  Thomas,  Deputy -governor  of  Mary 
land,  seizes  Ingle's  ship,  100. 

Breyman,  Colonel,  defeated  at  Beunington, 
507. 

Bridges,  John,  royal  surveyor  of  woods  in 
New  England,  364, 403. 

Brissot,  De  Warville ;  toleration  in  New 
England,  426. 

Bristol,  account  of,  239,  240. 

Brockholst,  Anthony,  Deputy -governor  of 
New  York,  meddles  in  New  Jersey,  and  is 
repelled,  266,  298. 

Broglie,  Prince  de,  account  of  dress  in  Bos 
ton,  459. 

Brooke,  Lord,  patentee  of  Connecticut,  34S, 
373. 

Broughton,  Thomas,  Governor  of  South  Car 
olina,  167. 

Brown  College,  charter  of,  42S.  Account  of, 
466. 

Bulkeley,  Peter,  agent  of  Massachusetts,  359. 

Bull,  William,  Lieutenant-governor  of  South 
Carolina,  168. 

Bull,  William,  the  younger,  Lieutenant-gov 
ernor  of  South  Carolina,  170. 

Bundling— character  of  this  custom  iu  New 
England,  438. 

Bunker  Hill,  battle  of,  493. 

Burgess,  Colonel,  appointed  Governor  of 
Massachusetts,  and  bought  off,  364. 

Burgesses,  House  of,  in  Virginia,  first  meet 
ing  and  first  legislation  of,  9,  10.  Resist 
royal  commissioners,  12.  Bargains  with 
Charles  I.  as  to  tobacco,  13.  Wrests  treas 
ure-ship  from  Nicholson,  26.  Powers  and 
privileges  of,  47, 48. 

Burgoyne,  General  John,  invasion  of  colo 
nies,  and  defeat,  506, 507. 


Burnet,  William,  Governor  of  New  Jersey, 
269 ;  of  New  York,  304  ;  of  Massachusetts  ; 
death  of,  366.  Governor  of  New  Hamp 
shire,  403. 

Burrington,  George,  Governor  of  North  Car- 
olina,  142, 143. 

Byles,  Mather,  writings,  469, 470. 

Byllinge,  Edward,  buys  under  trust  West 
Jersey,  264. 

Byrd,  Colonel,  of  Westover ;  character  and 
education  of,  76.  As  a  literary  man,  87. 

C. 

CADWALAPEB,  Dr.  Thomas,  eminent  physi 
cian,  writer,  and  lecturer,  236. 

Calvert,  Benedict  Leonard,  fourth  Lord  Bal 
timore,  becomes  Protestant,  and  recovers 
province ;  dies,  108. 

Calvert,  Cecilius,  second  Lord  Baltimore,  re 
ceives  charter  given  to  his  father,  95.  Con 
test  with  Burgess,  99.  Policy  during  Great 
Rebellion,  100-102. 

Calvert,  Charles,  Governor  of  Maryland,  and 
third  Lord  Baltimore,  105.  Attacks  upon, 
in  England,  106.  William  III.  deprives  of 
government,  107.  Boundary  disputes  with 
Delaware  and  Pennsylvania,  209,  213. 
Boundary  disputes  with  Dutch,  294,  295. 

Calvert,  Charles,  fifth  Lord  Baltimore,  inher 
its  Maryland  as  an  infant,  108. 

Calvert,  George,  first  Lord  Baltimore,  career 
and  character  of,  93.  Obtains  charter  from 
Charles  L,  94.  Plans  as  to  his  colony,  95. 
Views  of  toleration,  97. 

Calvert,  Leonard,  first  Governor  of  Mary 
land,  founds  settlement,  98.  Deals  with 
Clayborne,  99.  Goes  to  England  for  in 
structions  as  to  religious  policy,  100.  De 
feated  by  Ingle  and  Clayborne,  and  flies  to 
Virginia,  100, 101.  Returns  ;  sets  up  gov 
ernment,  and  appoints  Greene  his  succes 
sor;  dies,  101. 

Calvert,  Philip,  Governor  of  Maryland,  105. 

Calverts,  character  and  government  of,  110. 

Cambridge,  or  Newtown,  settled,  and  capi 
tal  of  Massachusetts,  345.  Hooker  settles 
there,  346.  Election  at,  in  Hutchinsonian 
excitement,  350.  Press  at,  471. 

Camdeu,  battle  of,  512. 

Camden,  Lord,  opposes  Stamp  Act,  477. 

Campbell,  Colonel,  defeats  Americans  in 
Georgia,  and  takes  Savannah,  509. 

Campbell,  William,  Lord,  Governor  of  South 
Carolina,  170. 

Carleton,  Sir  Guy,  defeats  Americans  at  Que 
bec,  496. 

Carr,  Dabuey;  resolutions  for  correspond 
ence  of  colonies,  4S5. 


540 


INDEX. 


Carr,  Sir  Robert,  conquers  Delaware,  208, 
296.  His  government,  209.  Commissioner 
in  Massachusetts,  355. 

Carteret.  Sir  George,  obtains  grant  of  New 
Jersey ,  dies,  266. 

Carteret,  James,  usurps  government  of  New 
Jersey,  204. 

Carteret,  Lady,  orders  resistance  to  New 
York,  266. 

Carteret,  Philip,  Governor  of  North  Carolina, 
137 ;  of  New  Jersey  ;  arrives,  263.  Driven 
out  by  James  Carteret,  and  returns,  264. 
Difficulties  with  Audros,  265.  Retires  on 
sale  of  province,  266. 

Cartwright,  Colonel  George,  royal  commis 
sioner,  takes  Fort  Orange,  295,  296.  Com 
missioner  in  Massachusetts,  355.  Wrecked, 
and  loses  papers  against  Massachusetts, 
356. 

Cary,  Thomas,  Deputy -governor  of  North 
Carolina,  140. 

Castle  Island,  convicts  on,  440. 

Cat  Island,  inoculating  hospital  burned  at, 
420. 

Channel  Islands,  emigration  from,  to  New 
England,  40. 

Charleston,  South  Carolina,  foundation  of, 
159.  Description  of,  1S3, 184.  Resistance 
to  introduction  of  tea,  486,  487.  Defeat  of 
British,  497.  Taken  by  British,  611. 

Charlestown,  settlement  at,  344, 345.  Burned 
by  British,  493. 

Chnstellnx,  Marquis  de,  New  England  inns, 
456. 

Chateaubriand,  opinion  of  Philadelphia,  239; 
of  Pennsylvania  society,  262. 

Chauncy,  Charles,  learning  of,  424. 

Chew  House,  seized  by  British  at  battle  of 
German  town,  505. 

Chicheley,  Sir  Henry,  Governor  of  Virginia, 
23. 

"  Child,  Tom,  the  Painter,"  472. 

Christiaensen,  Hendrick,  establishes  fort 
near  Albany,  285. 

Christmas,  hostility  to  observance  of,  in  New 
England,  426. 

Church,  Colonel  Benjamin,  pursues  and  kills 
King  Philip,  358.  In  command  in  the  East, 
363.  Writings  of,  471. 

Church  of  England,  Established,  growth  of, 
in  Virginia,  54, 55.  Intolerance  of,  in  Vir 
ginia,  55.  Decline  of,  in  Virginia,  56.  In 
tolerance  of,  in  eighteenth  century,  56, 57. 
Fall  of,  in  Virginia,  58.  Vestries  in  Vir 
ginia,  58,  59.  Organization  in  Virginia,  59, 
60.  In  Maryland,  120, 123.  Established  in 
North  Carolina,  140.  Character  of,  in  North 
Carolina,  150, 151.  Party  of,  in  North  Caro 


lina,  160 ;  in  South  Carolina,  174  and  ff. ;  in 
Georgia,  203 ;  in  Pennsylvania,  215,  234 ;  in 
New  Jersey,  268,  278,  279.  Forced  on  New 
York  by  Cornbury,  302.  Condition  of,  in 
New  York,  319.  Hatred  of,  in  New  Eng 
land,  426.  Attended  by  officials  in  Boston, 
458. 

Clarke,  George,  Lieutenant-governor  of  New 
York,  305.  Attributes  negro  plot  to  pa 
pists,  321. 

Clarke,  George  Rogers,  captures  Vinceunes, 
509. 

Clarke,  John,  leader  of  Baptists  in  Rhode 
Island  ;  persecuted  in  Massachusetts ;  goes 
to  England,  38S.  Conduct  in  England, 

389.  Obtains  charter  for  Rhode  Island, 

390.  Accounts  disputed,  391.     Death  of, 
392. 

Clarke,  Walter,  Governor  of  Rhode  Island, 
refuses  to  take  office  on  the  fall  of  Andros, 
392. 

Clayborue,  William,  troubles  of,  with  Mary- 
landers,  14.  Leader  of  Puritans,  15.  Com 
missioner  of  Parliament,  16.  Subdues  Ma 
ryland,  17,  103.  Displaced  from  office,  19. 
Dealings  with  first  settlers  of  Maryland, 
98.  Defeated  by  Calvert,  and  goes  to  Eng 
land,  99.  Overthrows  government  of  Mary 
land  with  Ingle,  100. 

Clinton,  Admiral  George,  Governor  of  New 
York,  305.  Account  of  parties,  339. 

Clinton,  Sir  Henry,  repulsed  at  Charleston, 
497.  On  the  Hudson,  507.  Abandons  Phil 
adelphia,  and  marches  to  New  York,  508. 
Held  in  check  by  Wayne's  attack  on  Stony 
Point, 510.  Takes  Charleston;  plots  with 
Arnold,  511.  Jealousy  of  Cornwallis,  515. 

Cock-fighting  in  Virginia,  84,  86. 

Coddingtou, William,  supports  Mrs.  Hutchin- 
son,  349.  Judge  at  Portsmouth,  Rhode  Isl 
and  ;  founds  Newport,  385.  Assistant ;  at 
tacked  ;  goes  to  England ;  returns  with 
commission  as  Governor  for  life,  and  sets 
up  government,  388.  Government  over 
thrown,  389.  Death  of,  392. 

Colden,  Cadwallader,  supports  Governor 
Clinton,  306.  Lieutenant-governor  of  New 
York,  310.  Publishes  history,  337.  Forced 
to  give  up  stamps,  476. 

Colleton,  James,  Governor  of  South  Caroli 
na,  161. 

Colman,  Benjamin,  writings  of,  469,  470. 

Colve,  Anthony,  Governor  of  New  York  dur 
ing  Dutch  reconquest,  297. 

Concord,  battle  of,  492. 

Congress,  Stamp  Act,  476.  Of  1774,  meets  in 
Philadelphia,  490.  Their  action,  491.  Meet 
ing  of  second  Congress;  gradually  drawn 


INDEX. 


541 


into  war,  494.  Movement  for  Indepen 
dence;  party  divisions,  498.  Declares  In 
dependence,  499.  Reasons  for  delay,  and 
final  result,  499,  500.  Hampers  Washing 
ton  ;  leaves  Philadelphia,  503.  Flies  from 
Philadelphia  before  Howe,  505. 

Connecticut,  Dutch  settlement  in,  287.  Fail 
ure  of  Dutch  power  in,  290.  Boundary 
agreement  with  Stuyvesant,  292.  Hoetility 
to  Dutch,  293.  Infringes  on  New  York  by 
Winthrop's  charter,  and  hostility  to  New 
York,  295.  Boundary  settlement  with  Nic- 
olls,296.  Repels  Andros,  298.  Trade  opened 
from  Massachusetts,  346.  Emigration  to, 
under  Hooker,  348.  Controversy  with  Mas 
sachusetts,  358.  Settlement  of,  by  English, 
3T3.  Pequod  war,  373,  374.  Government 
established ;  New  Haven,  374.  Growth ; 
trouble  with  Dutch,  and  with  Massachu 
setts  in  confederacy,  '375.  Hostility  to 
Dutch ;  Winthrop  Governor ;  obtains  char 
ter,  376.  Absorbs  New  Haven ;  dealings 
with  royal  commissioners,  377.  Relations 
with  New  York ;  Philip's  war,  378.  Boun 
dary  question  with  Massachusetts  and 
Rhode  Island,  378,  379.  Attacks  of  Ran 
dolph,  379.  Andros  Governor  -  general ; 
charter  government  re-established,  380. 
Progress  after  accession  of  William ;  Queen 
Anne's  war,  381.  Settles  boundary  with 
Massachusetts  and  Rhode  Island ;  progress 
under  Walpole,  382.  Conduct  in  Spanish 
and  French  wars,  383.  Resists  taxation, 
and  sends  delegates  to  Stamp  Act  Con 
gress,  383,  384.  Boundary  dispute  with 
Rhode  Island,  390,  391.  Farming  lands, 
406.  Population  of,  408.  Agriculture,  409. 
Trade, 410.  Industries, 411.  Government; 
pay  of  Governor,  etc.,  413.  Courts,  418. 
Congregational  and  Episcopal  churches  of, 
427, 428.  Opposition  to  singing  by  note  in 
church,  431.  Slaves  in,  442.  Yale  College, 
466.  Opposition  to  Stamp  Act;  supports 
Massachusetts  against  Hillsborough,  480. 
Adopts  a  declaration  of  rights,  489.  Be 
gins  to  arm,  491. 

Conway  Cabal,  507. 

Conway,  Henry  Seymour,  brings  bill  for  re 
peal  of  Stamp  Act,  477.  Motion  against 
continuing  American  war,  518. 

Coode,  John,  at  head  of  Protestant  associa 
tion  ;  seizes  government  of  Maryland,  107. 

Cooke,  Elisha,  agent  of  Massachusetts,  360. 
Leader  of  popular  party  against  Dudley, 
363. 

Cooke,  Elisha,  the  younger,  leader  of  popu 
lar  party  against  Shute ;  chosen  speaker, 
and  set  aside  by  Governor,  364.  Agent 


of  Massachusetts,  365.  Made  a  judge  by 
Belcher,  366. 

Copley,  John  Singleton,  painter,  472. 

Copley,  Sir  Lionel,  Governor  of  Maryland, 
107. 

Corey,  Giles,  pressed  to  death  in  witchcraft 
excitement,  435. 

Cornbury,  Lord,  Governor  of  New  Jersey, 
267,  268.  Church  policy  in  New  Jersey, 
278. 

Cornwallis,  Lord,  repulsed  at  Charleston, 
497.  Pursues  Washington  in  New  Jersey, 
503.  Outgeneralled  by  Washington  in 
Princeton  campaign,  504.  At  Philadel 
phia,  505.  In  command  at  the  south;  re 
pressive  policy,  511.  AtCamden,512.  Baf 
fled  by  Greene,  513.  Defeats  Greene  at 
Guilford,  and  marches  north,  514.  Surren 
ders  at  Yorktown,  515. 

Corssen,  Arendt  Van,  establishes  post  on 
Schuylkill,  287. 

Cortland,  manor  of,  315,  327. 

Cosby,  William,  Governor  of  New  Jersey, 
270;  of  New  York,  304. 

Cotton,  John,  arrival  in  Boston,  346.  Sym 
pathy  with  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  349.  Love 
of  Calvin,  424.  Petitions  against  taverns, 
438.  Verses  of,  468. 

Cowpens,  the,  battle  of,  513. 

Cradock,  Matthew,  first  Governor  of  Mas 
sachusetts  Company,  343.  Agent  of  Mas 
sachusetts  in  early  troubles  as  to  charter, 
347. 

Crandall,  John,  persecuted  in  Massachusetts, 
388. 

Cranfield,  Edward,  royal  Governor  of  New 
Hampshire,  399.  Administration  ;  oppres 
sion  ;  complaints  against ;  forced  to  leave 
province,  399, 400. 

Cranston,  Samuel,  Governor  of  Rhode  Isl 
and,  392, 393. 

Craven,  Charles,  Governor  of  South  Carolina, 
164. 

Craven,  Lord,  palatine  of  South  Carolina, 
164. 

Cromwell,  Oliver,  sends  out  fleet  against 
New  Netherlands,  293.  Relations  with 
Massachusetts,  353. 

Crown  Point  captured  by  Allen,  493. 

Cruger,  Colonel,  abandons  "Ninety-six," 
514. 

Culpepper,  John,  heads  insurrection  against 
Miller  in  North  Carolina,  138. 

Culpepper,  Lord,  grant  of  Virginia  to,  19. 
Governor  of  Virginia ;  his  administration, 
23.  Recalled,  24. 

Cummings,  Sir  Alexander,  Crown  agent 
among  Indians,  166. 


542 


INDEX. 


Cnrler,  Jacob  Van,  establishes  post  on  Con 
necticut  river,  287. 

dishing,  Elder,  petitions  for  closing  taverns, 
438. 

Cntts  house  at  Portsmouth,  446. 

Cults,  John,  President  of  New  Hampshire; 
death  of,  398. 

Cuylers,  estates  of  the,  32T. 

Cygnet,  royal  cruiser,  attack  planned  upon, 
396. 

D. 

DAGWORTIIY,  Captain,  trouble  with  Wash 
ington,  109, 110. 

Dale,  Sir  Thomas,  Governor  of  Virginia  ;  his 
administration,  7, 8. 

Dalrymple,  Colonel,  takes  possession  of  fort 
in  Boston  harbor,  483. 

Dam,  Rip  Van,  struggle  with  Cosby,  304 ; 
with  Clarke,  305. 

Daniel,  Robert,  Deputy -governor  of  North 
Carolina,  140 ;  of  South  Carolina,  1C4. 

Dartmouth  College,  466. 

D'Aulnay,  relations  of,  with  New  England, 
352: 

Davenant,  Sir  William,  appointed  Governor 
of  Maryland  by  Charles  II.,  102. 

Davenport,  John,  Rev.,  founder  of  New 
Haven,  374. 

De  Lancey,  James,  chief -justice  of  New 
York;  supports  suppression  of  negro  plot ; 
controls  Governor  Clinton,  305.  Commis 
sioned  Lieutenant-governor,  306.  Acting- 
Governor,  306,  307.  Presides  at  Albany 
Congress,  and  opposes  Franklin,  307.  Con 
trols  Hardy,  and  again  Lieutenant-govern 
or,  308.  Funeral  of,  338. 

Delaware,  discovery  and  settlement  of,  by 
Dutch,  205.  Settlement  of,  by  Swedes,  206. 
Growth  under  Swedes,  206,  207.  Contests 
of  Dutch  and  Swedes,  and  defeat  of  latter, 
207.  Under  Dutch,  and  city  of  Amster 
dam,  208,  294.  Conquest  by  English,  208, 

209.  Under  English,  209.    Ceded  to  Penn, 

210.  United  with  Pennsylvania,  212.    Un 
ion  dissolved ;  brought  back  by  Fletcher, 
214.     Union    finally   severed,  216.     Geo 
graphical  situation;  identity  with  Penn 
sylvania,  227.     Occupations,  229.    Govern 
ment,  230,  231.     Judiciary,  232.     Towns, 
240.    Non-importation  agreement,  481. 

Delaware,  Lord,  Governor  of  Virginia  ;  his 
administration,  7.  Friends  of,  oppressed 
by  Argall,  8.  Re-appointed  Governor,  and 
dies  on  voyage  out,  9. 

Denny,  William,  Deputy-governor  of  Penn 
sylvania,  228. 

Deux  Fonts,  Viscount  de,  at  Yorktowu,  515. 

De  Vries,  D.  P.,  Patroon ;  arrival  in  South 


river,  and  loss  of  his  settlers,  205, 287.  Trou 
bles  with  Van  Twiller,  237.  Comes  out 
with  Company  to  Stateu  Island,  288.  Kind 
ness  to  Indians;  remonstrates  with  Kieft, 
289. 

Dickinson,  John,  opposes  attempts  to  de 
stroy  proprietary  government  in  Pennsyl 
vania,  225.  Leader  of  moderate  party  in 
Pennsylvania,  489.  Draughts  address  to 
King,  491.  Leads  in  debate  against  inde 
pendence,  499. 

Dieskau,  Baron,  defeated  by  Johnson  at 
Fort  George,  and  killed,  307. 

Digges,  Edward,  Governor  of  Virginia,  17. 

Diucklagen,  Lubbertus  Van,  schout,  quarrel 
with  Van  Twiller,  288. 

Dinwiddie,  Robert,  Governor  of  Virginia, 
conflicts  with  Burgesses,  29,  30. 

Dobbs,  Arthur,  Governor  of  North  Carolina, 
143-145.  • 

Donck,  Adrian  Van  der,  heads  opposition  to 
Stnyvesant,  292. 

Dongan,  Thomas,  Governor  of  New  York ; 
interferes  with  East  Jersey,  266.  Adminis 
tration  in  New  York,  298, 299.  Efforts  to 
establish  a  mail  service,  331.  Relations 
with  Connecticut,  379. 

Donop,  Colonel,  killed  at  Fort  Mercer,  505. 

Dorchester  Company,  342,  343. 

Douglass,  William  ;  toleration  in  New  Eng 
land,  426. 

Dover  founded,  397. 

Drayton,  Michael,  poem  on  departure  of  Vir 
ginian  expedition,  5. 

Drummond,  William,  leader  in  Bacon's  re 
bellion,  20.  Governor  of  North  Carolina, 
135. 

Drysdale,  Hugh,  Governor  of  Virginia,  28. 

Duddington,  Lieutenant,  commander  of  Gas- 
pee,  484. 

Duddy,  Richard,  prosecuted  for  damning 
Dnke  of  Cumberland,  283. 

Dudley,  Joseph,  plots  with  Cornbury  against 
charter  governments,  302, 382.  Leader  of 
Crown  party;  agent  of  Massachusetts; 
president  of  government  by  commission, 
359.  Thrown  into  prison  with  Andros,  3GO. 
Character,  career,  and  administration,  362, 
363.  Connecticut  declines  to  come  under 
his  government,  374-  Refuses  to  help  him 
in  Queen  Anne's  war,  381.  Attacks  Rhode 
Island,  393.  President  of  New  Hampshire 
by  commission,  400.  Governor  of  New 
Hampshire;  controversy  with  Usher, 401, 
402.  Quarrel  with  the  carters,  473. 

Dudley,  Thomas,  Deputy-governor  of  Massa 
chusetts,  345.  Governor,  346.  To  manage 
war,  347.  Re-chosen  Deputy-governor,  350. 


INDEX. 


543 


Governor,  351.  Party  of  recovers  suprem 
acy,  353. 

Dnmraer,  Jeremiah,  agent  of  Massachusetts, 
365.  Defends  Connecticut  charter,  382.  And 
Rhode  Island  charter,  394.  Leader  of  Lat- 
itndinarian  movement,  424.  Defence  of 
charters,  468. 

Dnmroer,  Richard,  supports  Mrs.  Hutchin- 
son, 349. 

Dummer,  William,  appointed  Lieutenant- 
governor  of  Massachusetts,  364.  Adminis 
tration  as  Lieutenant-governor, 365,366. 
Makes  peace  with  Indians,  403. 

Dunbar,  David,  surveyor  of  woods,  and  Lieu 
tenant-governor  of  New  Hampshire,  403. 
Controversy  with  Belcher,  404. 

Dnnmore,  Lord,  dissolves  Virginia  Assem 
bly,  489.  Forced  to  give  up  powder,  492. 
Plies  the  colony,  494,  49T. 

Duntou,  John,  description  of  Boston  Com 
mon,  45T.  Of  merchants,  458.  Of  old  maids, 
462. 

Du  Qnesne,  Fort,  defeat  of  Braddock  at,  33. 
Captured  by  Forbes,  35,  224. 

Dutch,  in  Delaware  and  Pennsylvania,  228, 
290,293.  In  Connecticut,  287, 290.  In  New 
Jersey,  273.  In  New  York,  285  and  ff.  De 
cline  of  power  of,  294.  Clergy  and  church 
es,  317,  318.  Persecute  Quakers,  318.  Hos 
tility  to  English  in  education  aiid  language, 
326.  Manners  and  superstitions,  329,330. 
Life  of,  in  Albany,  332.  In  New  York,  333. 
Houses,  334.  Holidays,  336.  Troubles  of, 
in  and  with  Connecticut,  375.  Dealings 
with  Connecticut  at  reconquest  of  New 
York,  378.  War  with  Rhode  Island,  389. 

E. 

EASTOHUROII,  THOMAS,  Governor  of  North 
Carolina,  138. 

Easton,  Nicholas,  Quaker  Governor  of  Rhode 
Island,  391. 

Eaton,  Theophilus,  found«r  of  New  Haven, 
and  Governor,  374. 

Ebenezer  founded,  190.    Description  of,  201. 

Eden,  Charles,  Governor  of  North  Carolina, 
141. 

Edwards,  Jonathan,  in  religious  revival,  367, 
427.  Early  resolution,  424.  Writings  of,  470. 

Effingham,  Lord  Howard  of,  Governor  of  Vir 
ginia;  administration,  and  withdrawal,  24. 

Eliot,  Andrew,  amusements  in  Boston,  460. 

Eliot,  John,  bewails  decline  of  religion,  426. 
Verses  of,  468. 

Ellis,  Henry,Lieutenant-governor  of  Georgia, 
195, 196. 

Endicott,  John,  patentee  of  second  Dorches 
ter  Company,  343.  Orders  Episcopalians 


away  from  Salem,  344.  Called  to  account 
for  cutting  cross,  348.  Sent  against  Pe- 
quods,  349.  Chosen  Governor,  352.  Elected 
Governor  on  death  of  Winthrop,  353.  Sup 
ports  persecution  of  Quakers,  354.  Death 
of,  356.  Opposes  long  hair,  438. 

Esopus,  massacre  at,  294. 

Essex  County,  Massachusetts,  opposes  Win 
throp,  352. 

Estaing,  D',  Admiral,  Count,  at  Newport,  508. 
Leaves  for  Boston,  509.  Repulsed  at  Savan 
nah,  510. 

Eutaw  Springs,  battle  of,  514. 

Evans,  John,  Deputy-governor  of  Pennsylva 
nia,  216, 217. 

Evans,  pirate,  243. 

Everard,  Sir  Richard,  Governor  of  North 
Carolina,  142. 

Exeter  founded,  397. 


FALMOUTH,  Indian  treaty  at,  403. 

Fauquier,  Francis,  Governor  of  Virginia,  35. 
Prevents  delegates  to  Stamp  Act  Congress, 
40.  Love  of  gaming,  86 ;  of  arts  and  liter 
ature,  87. 

Fendall,  Josias,  Governor  of  Maryland,  char 
acter,  104. 

Fenwick,  John,  attempts  settlement  on  the 
Delaware,  209.  Buys,  as  trustee  of  Byllinge, 
West  Jersey,  264.  Troubles  with  Andros, 
265. 

Ferguson,  Major,  defeated  at  King's  Moun 
tain,  512. 

Fitch,  Thomas,  Governor  of  Connecticut,  ad 
vises  submission  to  Stamp  Act,  383.  Com 
pelled  to  oppose,  384. 

Fitzhugh,  William,  lawyer,  53. 

Fletcher,  Benjamin,  royal  Governor  of  Penn 
sylvania,  214 ;  of  New  York,  301.  Repulsed 
by  Connecticut,  381.  Relations  with  pi 
rates  and  Jacobite  Club,  324. 

Flower,  Enoch,  opens  school  in  Philadel 
phia,  254. 

Fort  Frontenac,  309, 370. 

Fort  George,  battle  of,  307. 

Fort  Mercer,  capture  of,  505. 

Fort  Mifflin,  capture  of,  505. 

Fort  Schuyler,  repulse  of  British  at,  506. 

Fort  William  Henry,  battle  of,  308. 

Fox,  Charles,  quarrel  with  Shelburne,  and 
resignation,  518. 

Fox,  George,  in  Maryland,  124.  Visit  to 
Rhode  Island,  391. 

France,  in  the  valley  of  the  Ohio,  30.  Fall  of 
power  of,  in  America,  35, 136,  310.  Begins 
to  threaten  New  York,  294.  Dread  of.  in 
New  York,  299.  War  with,  on  New  York 


544 


INDEX. 


frontier,  300.  Hatred  of,  in  New  England, 
4T3.  Sends  supplies  to  Americans,  504. 
Enters  into  alliance  with  United  Colonies, 
508.  Attitude  in  peace  negotiations,  518, 
519. 

Fraukland,  Sir  Harry,  driven  from  Boston 
for  keeping  a  mistress,  438.  Estate  at  Hop- 
kinton,  447. 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  assists  Braddock,  33, 
222.  Arrival  in  Philadelphia  ;  deceived  by 
Keith,  219.  Supports  Governor  Thomas  in 
Spanish  and  French  war,  221.  Leader  of 
Pennsylvania  Assembly  to  tax  proprie 
tary  estates  and  issue  paper  money,  222. 
Raises  troops,  and  checks  Indians,  223. 
Agent  in  England  for  colony  as  to  taxation 
of  proprietary  estates,  223,  224.  Helps  to 
suppress  Paxton  riot ;  again  agent  to  re 
monstrate  against  taxation,  225.  Benefit 
to  Philadelphia,  238.  Founds  university, 
254.  Scientific  exploits,  255.  Literature, 

256.  Postmaster,  aud  founder  of  library, 

257.  Increases  mails  in  New  Jersey,  281. 
Agent  of  Massachusetts,  483.     Publishes 
letters  of  Hutchinson   and    Oliver;   at 
tacked  by  Wedderburn,  487.    Mission  to 
France,  517.     Conduct  in  peace  negotia 
tions,  518. 

Franklin,  Josiah,  library  of,  471. 

Franklin,  William,  Governor  of  New  Jersey, 

272.    Improves  court  of  chancery,  282. 
Frederica,  founded,  191.   Defence  of,  192, 193. 
Frontenac,  Count,  invades  New  York,  300, 

m- 

GADSPEN,  CHBISTOPHKB,  chosen  delegate  to 
Stamp  Act  Congress,  171.  At  Stamp  Act 
Congress,  311,  476.  Commands  troops  at 
James  Island,  497. 

Gage,  Thomas,  General,  civil  Governor  of 
Massachusetts,  488.  Quarrel  with  Boston, 
489.  Demands  more  troops,  490.  Fails  to 
seize  powder  at  Salem,  492. 

Galloway,  Andrew,  supports  cession  of  Penn 
sylvania  to  the  Crown,  225. 

Gansevoort,  Colonel,  repulses  British  at  Fort 
Schnyler,  506. 

Gaspee,  affair  of,  484.  Royal  commission  to 
inquire  into,  485. 

Gates,  Horatio,  in  command  in  the  North, 
506.  Receives  surrender  of  Bnrgoyne,  507. 
Defeated  at  Camden,  512.  Relieved  by 
Greene,  513. 

Gates,  Thomas,  commands  expedition  to  Vir 
ginia,  and  for  some  time  Governor,  7. 

Georgia,  situation  and  causes  of  settlement 
of,  187.  Association  to  colonize,  189.  Set 
tlement  of,  189, 190.  Restrictive  acts,  190. 


Dangers  from  Spaniards,  191.  Relations 
with  Indians,  and  war  with  Spain,  192.  Ke- 
pulse  of  Spaniards  at  Frederica,  193.  Bad 
government  of  Trustees,  194.  Troubles  af 
ter  Oglethorpe's  departure,  194, 195.  Ceded 
to  Crown,  and  consequent  progress,  195. 
Progress  under  Wright;  growth  of  resist 
ance  to  England,  196.  Population,  amount 
and  character  of,  197.  Government,  198, 
199.  Legal  system  ;  militia,  199.  Trade  and 
society  under  Trustees,  199, 200.  Commerce 
and  growth  of  colony  under  Crown,  200. 
Towns ;  life  and  amusements,  201.  Sla 
very  ;  servants ;  crime,  202.  Religion,  202, 

203.  Literature  and  education,  203.    Polit 
ical  tendencies,  203,  204.    Quarrels  of  Gov 
ernor  and  Assembly,  484.  Delegate  chosen 
in  one  parish,  491.    British  in,  509, 510. 

Germans,  in  Virginia,  66.  In  South  Carolina, 
173.  In  Georgia;  lukewarm  to  Revolution, 

204.  Immigration  to  Pennsylvania,  219. 
Opposition  to  war,  223.    In  Pennsylvania, 
228.     Religion  of,  in   Pennsylvania,  234. 
Quarrels  with  Irish,  248,  249.    Thrift,  249. 
Superstition,  253.  Support  Quakers,  261.  lu 
New  Jersey,  273.    In  New  York,  313. 

Germantown,  account  of,  239.   Battle  of,  505. 

Glen,  James,  Governor  of  South  Carolina, 
168, 169. 

Glover,  William,  contest  with  Cary  for  gov 
ernment  of  North  Carolina,  140. 

Godfrey,  Thomas,  mathematician,  256. 

Godyn,  Samuel,  patroon,  286. 

Goffe,  William,  the  regicide,  takes  refuge  in 
New  England,  355. 

Gooch,  William,  Governor  of  Virginia,  28, 2S. 
Persecutes  Dissenters,  57. 

Gookin,  Charles,  Deputy-governor  of  Penn 
sylvania,  217, 218. 

Gordon,  Patrick,  Deputy-governor  of  Penn 
sylvania,  219. 

Gorges,  Ferdinando,  dread  of,  in  Plymouth, 
342.  Jealous  of  Massachusetts,  346.  Set 
tles  New  Hampshire ;  divides  with  Mason, 
and  receives  Maine,  397. 

Gorges  grants  and  claim,  351, 397.  Renewed 
againstMassachusetts,358.  Bought  np,359. 

Gorton,  Samuel,  settles  at  Shawomet,  386. 
Trouble  with  Massachusetts ;  goes  to  Eng 
land,  387.  President  at  Providence,  388. 

Gosnold,  Bartholomew,  cruise  to,  and  win 
ter  in  New  England,  2.  Character  of,  5. 

Gove,  Edward,  heads  insurrection  in  New 
Hampshire,  399. 

Grafton,  Duke  of,  resigns,  483. 

Grant,  Colonel,  defeats  Cherokees,  170. 

Granville,  Lord,  church  policy  in  South  Can> 
lina,  163.  Death  of,  164. 


INDEX. 


545 


drasse,  De,  Admiral,  Count,  at  Yorktown, 
515. 

Graves,  Admiral,  incompetency  of,  515. 

Green  Springs,  battle  of,  515. 

Greene,  John,  settler  of  Shawomet,  386. 

Greene,  Nathaniel,  takes  command  of  South 
ern  Department ;  retreats  before  Cornwal- 
lis,513.  Defeated  at  Gnilford,  Hobkirk's 
Hill,  and  Eutaw,  and  saves  North  and 
South  Carolina,  514. 

Greene,  Thomas,  Governor  of  Maryland,  101. 

Grenville,  Thomas,  peace  commissioner,  518. 

Guilford  Court-house,  battle  of,  514. 

Gustavus  Adolphus  ;  policy  of  colonization, 
206. 

H. 

HADLEY,  Indians  attack,  on  Sunday,  432. 

Hakluyt,  Richard ;  letter  to  first  emigrants 
to  Virginia,  5. 

Hamilton,  Alexander,  at  Yorktown,  515. 

Hamilton,  Andrew,  Deputy  -  governor  of 
Pennsylvania,  216.  Governor  of  New  Jer 
sey,  267. 

Hamilton,  Andrew,  eminent  lawyer  and 
Speaker  of  the  House  in  Pennsylvania,  221. 
Defender  of  Zenger,  233,  304. 

Hamilton,  Duke  of;  claim  against  Connecti 
cut,  379. 

Hamilton,  James,  Deputy-governor  of  Penn 
sylvania,  221.  Second  administration,  224. 

Hamilton,  John,  President  of  the  Council  in 
New  Jersey,  271. 

Hampton  founded,  397.  Minister  driven  out 
by  Cranfield,  400. 

Hancock,  John ;  sloop  Liberty  seized,  4SO. 
President  of  Congress,  494. 

Hanging  Rock,  battle  of,  512. 

Hardy,  Admiral  Sir  Charles ;  Governor  of 
New  York,  308. 

Hardy,  Josiah,  Governor  of  New  Jersey,  272. 

Harris,  William  ;  quarrel  with  Williams,  and 
arrested,  389.  Agitates,  and  arrested,  391. 

Hartford,  description  of,  452. 

Harvard  College,  founded,  348.  Classes  ar 
ranged  according  to  social  position,  445. 
Description  of,  466. 

Harvey,  Sir  John,  Governor  of  Virginin,  13. 
His  administration  and  recall,  14.  Rela 
tions  with  Maryland,  98, 99. 

Harvey,  Thomas,  Deputy-governor  of  North 
Carolina,  139, 140. 

Harwinton,  Connecticut;  opposition  to  sing 
ing  by  note  in  church,  431. 

Hawley,  Joseph,  patriot  leader,  485. 

Haynes,  John,  Governor  of  Connecticut,  374. 

Heath,  Sir  Robert,  grant  to,  133. 

Henry, Patrick;  early  life;  appears  as  counsel 
in  the  "  Parson's  Cause,"  38, 39.  Support? 


resolutions  against  Stamp  Act,  40.  Play 
ing  violin  ;  oratory,  83.  Supports  corre 
spondence  of  colonies,  485. 

Herkimer,  Nicholas,  defeats  British  at  Oris- 
kauy,  506. 

Hessians  arrive  in  New  York,  501.  Defeated 
at  Trenton,  504.  Repulsed  at  Fort  Mercer, 
505. 

Heyes,  Pieter,  agent  for  patroons  in  Dela 
ware,  205. 

Higginson,  Francis,  teacher  of  Salem  Church, 
343.  Journal  of,  467. 

Higginson,  John,  as  to  old  maids,  462. 

Highlanders,  Scotch,  in  South  Carolina,  174. 
180 ;  in  Georgia,  191-194, 198, 200. 

Hill,  General,  commands  expedition  against 
Canada,  303,  363. 

Hillsborough,  Lord,  orders  Massachusetts  to 
rescind  resolutions,  480.  Urges  arbitrary 
measures,  484. 

Hinoyossa,  Alexander  de,  Governor  of  New 
Amsterdam,  208. 

Hobkirk's  Hill,  battle  of,  514. 

Holden,  Randall,  settler  of  Shawomet,  386. 

Hollandaere,  John,  Governor  of  New  Swe 
den,  206. 

Holme?,  Obadiah,  persecuted  in  Massachu 
setts,  388. 

Hood,  Admiral ;  quarrel  with  Graves,  515. 

Hooker,  Thomas,  settles  at  Newtown,  346. 
Founder  of  Connecticut,  347,  373.  Preach 
ing  of,  424. 

Hopkins,  Edward,  Governor  of  Connecticut, 
374. 

Hopkins,  Stephen,  contest  with  Ward,  395. 

Hopkinton,  Franklaud  house  at,  447. 

Horsley,  Samuel,  Governor  of  South  Caroli 
na,  168. 

Howe,  Lord,  killed  at  Ticouderoga,  309. 
Monument  to,  370. 

Howe,  Lord,  sent  out  with  fleet,  492.  Avoids 
D'Estaing  off  Newport,  508. 

Howe,  Robert,  defeated  by  British  in  Geor 
gia,  509. 

Howe,  Sir  William,  fails  to  intercept  Wash 
ington,  502;  or  force  a  battle,  503.  Takes 
Philadelphia,  and  clears  river,  505.  Re 
lieved  by  Clinton,  508. 

Hubbnrd,  James,  heads  resistance  to  Stny- 
vesant  on  Long  Island,  293. 

Hudson,  Henry,  discovers  Hudson  river,  285. 

Hughes,  John,  Stamp  Collector  of  Pennsyl 
vania,  forced  to  resign,  226. 

Huguenots  in  Virginia,  66 ;  in  South  Caroli 
na,  161, 162, 173 ;  in  New  York,  312 ;  in  New 
England,  407,  473. 

Humphrey,  John,  Deputy-governor  of  Mas 
sachusetts,  344. 


35 


546 


INDEX. 


Hnnter,  Kobert,  appointed  Governor  of  Vir 
ginia,  but  does  not  arrive,  26.  Governor 
of  New  Jersey,  269.  Governor  of  New 
York,  303. 

Hnnter,  William,  Dr.,  lectures  at  Newport, 
421. 

Husbands,  Herman,  leader  of  "Regulators  " 
in  North  Carolina,  146. 

nutchinson,  Mrs.  Anne ;  arrival ;  attacks 
ministers,  349.  Trial  and  banishment,  350. 
Arrival  in  Rhode  Island,  385. 

Hntchinson,  Thomas,  brings  about  resump 
tion  in  Massachusetts,  368.  Chief-justice 
in  case  of  writs  of  assistance,  3T1,  41T. 
Opposes  circular,  372.  History,  470.  Oppo 
sition  to  Assembly,  479.  Governor  of  Mas 
sachusetts,  481.  Conduct  at  massacre ; 
compelled  to  send  away  regiments,  482. 
Quarrels  with  general  court, 483.  Discusses 
powers  of  Parliament  with  general  court, 
484,485.  Letters  published,  485.  Attempts 
to  enforce  introduction  of  tea,  486.  De 
parture,  489. 

Hyde,  Edward,  Lieutenant-governor  of  North 
Carolina,  140. 

I. 

INGERSOLT.,  JAREP,  agent  of  Connecticut,  383. 
Forced  to  resign  as  Stamp  Collector,  384. 

Ingle,  Richard,  rebellion  of,  in  Maryland, 
100, 101. 

Ingoldsby,  Richard,  Lieutenant-governor  of 
New  Jersey,  269.  Arrives  in  New  York, 
and  besieges  fort;  Lieutenant-governor, 
300.  Again  Lieutenant-governor  of  New 
York,  303. 

Irish  in  Pennsylvania,  228,  244.  Quarrels 
with  German?,  248, 249,  262. 

Iroquois,  Andros's  policy  with,  297, 299.  Re 
lations  with  Dongan,  298.  Chiefs  taken  to 
England  by  Schnyler,  303. 

J. 

JAMESTOWN  in  1716,  51.    Later,  52. 

Jay,  John,  takes  lead  of  moderate  patriots 
in  New  York,  489.  Draughts  address  to 
people  of  England,  491.  Moves  second  pe 
tition  to  King,  494.  Mission  to  Spain,  51 7. 
Share  in  peace  negotiations,  518. 

Jefferson,  Thomas;  playing  violin,  83. 
Friend  of  Governor  Fanqnier,  86.  Opin 
ion  of  Philadelphia,  239.  Draughts  Decla 
ration  of  Independence,  499. 

Jeffreys,  Colonel  Herbert,  Governor  of  Vir 
ginia,  23. 

Jenckes,  Joseph,  Governor  of  Rhode  Island ; 
opposes  paper-money,  394. 

Jenings,  Samuel,  heads  opposition  to  Corn- 
bury  in  New  Jersey,  268. 


Jews  in  South  Carolina,  176;  in  Georgia, 
190, 198  ;  in  New  York,  313. 

Johuson,  Sir  Nathaniel,  Governor  of  North 
Carolina,  140.  Of  South  Carolina,  163. 

Johnson,  Robert,  Governor  of  South  Caroli 
na;  first  administration,  164, 165.  Deposed, 
166.  Second  administration,  167. 

Johnson,  Samuel,  founds  King's  College,  325. 
Hostility  to,  in  Connecticut,  on  joining 
Episcopal  Church,  428. 

Johnson,  Sir  William,  Indian  agent,  306.  De 
feats  Dieskau,  307.  Captures  Fort  Niaga 
ra,  309.  Library  of,  337. 

Johnston,  Gabriel,  Governor  of  North  Caro 
lina,  143. 

Jones,  Sir  William,  arbitrator  between  West 
Jersey  Quakers  and  Duke  of  York,  265. 

Jumonville,  De,  death  of,  32. 

K. 

K  ALB,  BARON  I>E,  joins  Washington,  505.  Kill 
ed  at  Camden,  512. 

Keith,  George,  heads  schism  in  Pennsylva 
nia,  214. 

Keith,  Sir  William,  Governor  of  Pennsylva 
nia,  218,  219.  House,  250. 

Kidd,  Captain  William,  piracy  of;  pursued 
by  Bellomont,  301. 

Kieft,  William,  protest  against  Swedes,  206. 
Director  of  New  Netherlands ;  early  acts, 
288.  Excites  Indian  war,  289.  Popular  re 
sistance  to  ;  removed,  290.  Drowned,  291. 

King's  College,  establishment,  and  account 
of,  325. 

King's  Mountain,  battle  of,  512. 

King's  Province.  See  Narragansett  country. 

Kip's  Bay,  retreat  of  militia  from,  502. 

Kirke,  Colonel  Percy,  appointed  Governor 
of  Massachusetts,  360. 

Kittanning,  defeat  of  Indians  at,  223. 

Knowles,  Commodore,  raises  riot  in  Boston 
by  press-gang,  368. 

Knox,  Henry,  brings  cannon  from  Ticonde- 
roga,  495. 

Knyter,  J.  P.,  one  of  "eight"  men;  resists 
Kieft  and  Stnyvesant,  291. 


LAFAYETTE,  MARQUIS  DE,  joins  Washington, 
505.  Escapes  capture,  508.  In  Virginia, 
and  at  Yorktown,  515. 

Laidlie,  Rev.  Dr.,  preaches  against  amuse 
ments,  336. 

Lancaster,  massacre  of  Indians  at,  225.  Ac 
count  of,  239. 

Land-bank,  in  Massachusetts,  367. 

La  Tour,  relations  of,  with  New  England, 
352. 


INDEX. 


547 


Land,  Archbishop ;  effect  on  Puritan  emigra 
tion,  345. 

Laudonniere,  Rene  de,  attempts  settlements 
in  South  Carolina,  158, 159. 

Laureus,  Henry,  imprisoned  in  Tower  of 
London,  517.  Peace  commissioner,  518. 

Law,  Jonathan,  Governor  of  Connecticut, 
3S2.  Supports  Louisburg  expedition,  383. 

Lawrie,  Gaweu,  Deputy  -  governor  of  East 
Jersey,  26G. 

Lee,  Charles,  general  in  command  at  New 
York  and  Charleston,  497.  Delays  in  join 
ing  Washington,  and  taken  prisoner,  503. 
Conduct  at  battle  of  Monmouth  Court 
house,  and  court-martial,  508. 

Lee,  Colonel  Harry,  in  South  Carolina,  514. 

Lee  house  at  Marblehead,  446. 

Lee,  R.  H.,  oratory  of,  83.  Supports  corre 
spondence  of  colonies,  485.  Moves  resolu 
tion  for  Independence,  498. 

Leisler,  Jacob,  heads  revolt  against  Nichol 
son,  299.  Administration  ;  surrender  and 
execution,  300.  Reburial,  302.  Aided  by 
Connecticut,  381.  • 

Leverett,  John,  arrival  with  Parliament 
troops,  376.  Funeral  of,  462. 

Lexington,  battle  of,  492. 

Liberty,  sloop,  seized,  480. 

Lincoln,  Benjamin,  in  command  of  Southern 
Department,  509.  Repulsed  at  Savannah, 
510.  Surrenders  at  Charleston,  511. 

Livingston  Manor,  315, 327. 

Livingston,  Robert,  collector  of  New  York, 
and  leader  of  anti-Leisleriau  party ;  found 
a  defaulter,  302. 

Livingston,  William,  writes  for  Independent 
Reflector,  and  opposes  church,  319. 

Lloyd,  David,  popular  leader,  214.  Struggle 
with  Logan  and  Evans,  216,  217. 

Lloyd,  Thomas,  President  of  Council  in  Penn 
sylvania;  resigns,  213.  Restored,  214. 

Locke,  John,  draws  "  constitutions  "  of  Car- 
olinas,  136. 

Logan,  James,  secretary  of  Pennsylvania, 
and  manager  of  proprietary  estates,  216. 
His  conflict  with  David  Lloyd,  216,  217. 
Contest  with  Gookin,  218.  Conflict  with, 
and  victory  over  Keith,  219.  Head  of  gov 
ernment  as  President  of  Council,  220.  Sup 
ports  Governor  Thomas,  221.  House,  250. 
Scholarship,  255.  Founds  library,  257. 

London  Company  for  Virginia,  chartered,  2, 
3.  Fresh  exertions  obtain  a  new  charter, 7. 
Factions,  and  defeat  of  Court  party,  8,  9. 
Leaders  and  political  objects  of,  9.  Con 
tests  with  the  King,  11.  Charter  annulled, 
12. 

Londonderry,  Settlement  of,  403. 


Long  Island,  English  on,  support  Stuyve« 
sant,  292.  Agitation  against  Stuyvesant, 
293.  Revolt  of  towns  against  Dutch, '295. 
Agitation  against  Nicolls,  296.  Account  of 
towns  of,  330.  Country-seats,  335.  Pro 
tected  by  Connecticut,  378.  Battle  of,  502. 

London,  Lord,  Governor  of  Virginia,  35.  Im 
becile  as  commander-in-chief,  223.  Com 
mander-in-chief ;  northern  campaigns  and 
relations  with  colonies,  308,  369. 

Louisburg,  New  York  gives  money  for  ex 
pedition  against,  306.  Capture  of,  368.  Con 
necticut  forces  at,  383.  Rhode  Island  forces 
fail  to  reach,  394.  New  Hampshire  troops 
at,  404. 

Lovelace,  Francis,  Governor  of  New  York, 
297. 

Lovelace,  Lord,  Governor  of  New  Jersey, 
268;  of  New  York,  302. 

Ludwell,  Philip,  Governor  of  North  Caroli 
na,  139  ;  of  South  Carolina,  162. 

Lutherans  in  Pennsylvania,  234.  Persecuted 
by  Stuyvesant,  294.  In  New  York,  317. 

Lyman,  Phineas,  General,  second  in  com 
mand  at  battle  of  Fort  George,  307,  308. 

Lyttelton,  William,  Governor  of  South  Caro 
lina,  169,170. 

M. 

MAINE;  Andros  builds  fort  at  Pemaquid  as 
sign  of  Duke's  ownership,  298.  Brought 
within  jurisdiction  of  Massachusetts,  353. 
Indian  war  in,  358,  363,  365.  Bought  by 
Massachusetts,  359.  Incorporated  with 
Massachusetts,  361.  Falls  to  the  lot  of 
Gorges,  397.  Included  in  Massachusetts, 
406.  Physicians  in,  421.  Itinerant  preach 
ers,  433.  Education,  465. 

Makemie,  Rev.  Francis,  writes  "Perswasive 
to  Towns,"  51.  Leader  of  Presbyterians,  55. 
Arrested  and  imprisoned  in  New  York,  318. 

Malbone,  Godfrey,  illicit  trade  of,  410. 
Houses,  446. 

Manning,  John,  surrenders  New  York  to 
Dutch,  297. 

Mansfield,  Lord,  supports  Stamp  Act,  477. 
Theory  as  to  taxation,  478. 

Marblehead,  Lee  house  at,  446. 

Marion,  Francis,  partisan  leader,  512, 514. 

Markham,  William,  colonial  secretary  of 
Pennsylvania,  213.  Lieutenant-governor 
of  Delaware,  214.  Deputy -governor  of 
Pennsylvania,  214,  215.  Family  interested 
in  piracy,  243. 

Martin,  Josiah,  Governor  of  North  Caroli 
na,  146, 147.  Defeated  by  Americans,  and 
driven  from  province,  497. 

Martyn,  Richard,  expelled  from  Council  of 
New  Hampshire,  399. 


548 


INDEX. 


Maryland,  points  of  interest  in  history  of, 
93.  Charter  of,  95.  Religions  clauses  of 
charter  of,  96.  Reasons  for  toleration,  97. 
Catholics  among  first  settlers,  97, 98.  First 
settlement,  98.  Progress  in  first  three 
years,  and  differences  with  Lord  Balti 
more,  99.  Ingle's  rebellion  ;  rise  of  Puri 
tans,  100, 101.  Passage  of  the  Toleration 
Act,  101,  102.  Puritan  supremacy,  102. 
Rule  of  Commissioners  of  Parliament,  and 
defeat  of  Stone,  103, 104  Reverts  to  Lord 
Baltimore,  104.  Progress  under  Philip  and 
Charles  Calvert,  105.  Episcopal  Church 
movement,  105, 106.  Rise  of  Quakerism, 
106.  Protestant  association  seizes  govern 
ment,  107.  Decline,  and  intolerance  under 
royal  government,  108.  Restoration  of 
Calverts,  108, 109.  Tranquillity  under  Cal- 
verts;  contest  with  proprietary;  conduct 
in  French  'war,  109,  110.  Resistance  to 
England,  and  Stamp  Act,110,lll.  Likeness 
to  Virginia,  112.  Population  of,  112,  113. 
Character  of  population,  113.  Govern 
ment  of,  113, 114.  Legal  system,  115.  Fi 
nances  ;  army  and  navy,  116.  Products, 
116,117.  Industries  and  trade,  117.  Towns 
of,  118, 119.  Catholicism  in,  119, 120.  Es 
tablished  Church,  121,  122.  Clergy,  122- 
124.  Dissenting  sects  in,  123, 124.  Slave 
ry,  125.  White  servants,  125,  126.  Crime, 

126.  Upper  and  middle  classes;  travel, 

127.  Plantations   and   houses,  127,  123. 
Life,  dress,  etc.,  of  planters,  128.    Amuse 
ments,  129,  130.     Education,  130.     Litera 
ture,  131.     Boundary  dispute  and  settle 
ment  with  Penn,  220 ;  with  Dutch,  294,  295. 
Resists  Stamp  Act,  476.     Burns  a  tea-ship, 
491. 

Mason  grants,  and  claim,  351. 397.  Renewed 
against  Massachusetts,  358.  Sustained, 
359.  Bought  up  by  Allen,  400.  Land  suits 
to  enforce,  402.  Sold  to  a  company,  and 
released,  404. 

Mason,  John,  Captain,  captures  Pequod  fort, 
349. 

Mason,  John,  attacks  Massachusetts  on  ac 
count  of  eastern  grants,  346.  Death  of, 
347,  397.  Settles  New  Hampshire,  397. 

Mason,  Robert  Tufton,  revives  Mason  claim ; 
comes  out  as  councillor  of  New  Hamp 
shire,  and  attempts  to  take  lands,  398.  Re 
turns  with  Cranfield  ;  land  suits,  399. 

Massachusetts  opposes  war  with  Dutch,  293. 
Refuses  troops  to  royal  commissioners, 
295.  Settlement  of,  at  Plymouth,  341,  342 ; 
at  Cape  Ann,  342;  at  Salem,  343.  Foun 
dation  and  development  of  Bay  Company, 
S43.  344.  Character  of  emigration,  and 


objects  of  founders,  344.  Settlement ;  suf 
frage  ;  freemen  take  power,  345.  Estab 
lishment  of  Lower  House ;  growth  of  col 
ony,  346.  Trouble  as  to  the  charter,  347. 
Roger  Williams,  347,  348.  Courts  ;  col 
lege;  Connecticut  movement,  348.  Pe 
quod  war,  349.  The  Hutchinsouian  trou 
bles,  349,  351.  Progress  during  rebellion; 
division  of  Houses,  351.  Enters  confeder 
ation,  351,  352.  Dealings  with  D'Aulnay 
and  La  Tour,  352.  Attitude  in  the  con 
federacy,  and  toward  Cromwell,  353.  At 
tempts  to  suppress  Quakers,  354.  Rela 
tions  with  Charles  II.,  and  visit  of  royal 
commissioners,  355-357.  Philip's  war,  357. 
Difficulties  with  government  of  Charles 
II.,  358.  Loss  of  charter,  359.  Govern 
ment  of  Andros,  and  his  overthrow,  360. 
Effect  of  new  charter;  government  of 
Phips,  361 ;  of  Stoughton,  Bellomont,  and 
Dudley,  362.  French  war,  363.  Adminis^ 
tration  of  Shute,  364.  Indian  war,  3G5. 
Under  Burnet  and  Dummer;  under  Bel 
cher,  366.  Land-bank,  and  New  Hampshire 
boundary;  Shirley  Governor,  367.  The 
Spanish  war,  and  capture  of  Louisburg, 
368.  The  French  war,  369.  Bernard  Gov 
ernor,  370,  371.  The  writs  of  assistance, 
371.  Resistance  to  taxation  and  circular 
calling  Stamp  Act  Congress,  371,  372.  Dif 
ficulties  with  Connecticut,  375.  Boundary 
question  with  Connecticut,  378.  Settles 
boundary  with  Connecticut,  382.  Difficul 
ties  with  Gorton  and  Shawomet  settlers, 
386, 387.  Withdrawal  of  claim  to  Pawtuxet 
lands,  389.  Absorbs  New  Hampshire ;  sep 
aration  from  New  Hampshire,  398.  New 
Hampshire  reunited  after  fall  of  Andros, 
and  lost  with  Allen  Governor,  400.  Gov 
ernors  of,  in  New  Hampshire,  401-403. 
Line  run  with  New  Hampshire,  404.  In 
cludes  Maine,  406.  Population,  408.  Ag 
riculture,  409.  Trade  and  fisheries,  410. 
Industries,  411.  Government,  412.  Courts, 
415-418.  Lawyers,  418,  419.  Episcopal 
Church  in,  426,  427.  Opposition  to  sing 
ing  by  note  in  church,  431.  Slaves  in,  442. 
Funerals,  463.  Schools,  465.  Harvard  Col 
lege,  466.  Opposition  to  Stamp  Act,  476 ; 
to  Townsheud's  policy,  479.  Refuses  to  re 
scind  resolutions,  and  general  court  dis 
solved,  480.  Discusses  power  of  Parlia 
ment  with  Hutchinson,  484.  Punished  by 
Lord  North,  488.  Party  divisions,  489. 
Chooses  delegates  to  Congress ;  resistance 
to  mandamus  councillors  and  to  Gage, 
490.  Establishes  provincial  Congress,  491. 
Mather,  Cotton,  helps  Dudley's  appointment, 


INDEX. 


549 


and  quarrels  with  him,  363.  Snpports  in 
oculation  ;  bitterly  attacked,  420.  Expla 
nation  of  Boston  fire,  430.  In  witchcraft, 
435.  Account  of  cold,  459.  Writings  of, 
469. 

Mather  family,  learning  of,  424. 

Mather,  Increase,  agent  of  Massachusetts, 
360.  Obtains  appointment  of  Phips,  361. 
Opposes  Dudley,  303.  Obtains  opinion  on 
Connecticut  charter,  380.  Explanation  of 
Boston  fire,  430.  Learning  and  writings, 
409, 4TO. 

Mather,  Richard;  verses  in  Psalm-book, 
468. 

Matson,  Margaret,  tried  for  witchcraft,  253. 

Matthews,  General,  ravages  Virginia,  510. 

Matthews,  Samuel,  Governor  of  Virginia; 
contest  with  Assembly,  17.  Death  of,  18. 

Mauduit,  Israel,  agent  for  Pennsylvania  in 
England,  225. 

Maverick,  Samuel,  royal  commissioner  to 
Long  Island  and  New  York,  295.  Com 
missioner  in  Massachusetts,  355. 

May,  Cornells  Jacobsen,  explores  Long  Isl 
and  Sound,  285.  First  Director  at  Manhat 
tan,  286. 

Mayflower,  Pilgrim  ship,  341.  Compact  of 
the,  342. 

Mayhew,  Jonathan,  writings  of,  470. 

Meigs,  John,  tried  for  selling  poor  shoes, 
437. 

Melyn,  Cornells,  one  of  "eight"  men;  re 
sists  Kieft  and  Stuyvesant,  291.  Driven  to 
his  manor  by  Stuyvesant,  292. 

Mercer,  General  Hugh,  killed  at  Princeton, 
504. 

Meserve,  George,  stamp  agent  in  New  Hamp 
shire,  405. 

Miantonomo,  killed  by  Uncas,  386. 

Middleton,  Arthur,  Governor  of  South  Caro 
lina,  166. 

Mifflin,  Thomas,  patriot  leader  in  Pennsylva 
nia,  489.  Removed  from  quartermaster- 
ship,  507. 

Milborue;  Jacob,  son-in-law  of  Leisler,  and 
executed  with  him,  300.  Reburial  of,  302. 

Miller,  Thomas,  usurps  government  of  North 
Carolina,  138. 

Minuit,  Peter,  Governor  of  New  Sweden,  206. 
Director  of  New  Netherlands,  236.  Recall 
ed,  and  seized  by  English,  287. 

Mohawks,  attack  river  tribes,  290.  Kept 
neutral  by  Rensselaer,  294.  Make  peace 
with  Nicolls,  296. 

Mohegan  claims  against  Connecticut,  382. 
War  with  Narragan  setts,  386. 

Monckton,  General,  Governor  of  New  York, 
310. 


Monmonth  Conrt-house,  battle  of,  508. 

Montague,  Lord  Charles,  Governor  of  South 
Carolina,  170. 

Moutcalm,  Marquis  de,  victories  over  Eng 
lish  at  Oswego  and  Fort  William  Henry, 
308. 

Montgomerie,  John,  Governor  of  New  Jer 
sey,  270  ;  of  New  York,  304. 

Montgomery,  Richard,  commands  expedi 
tion  against  Canada,  495.  Killed  at  Que 
bec,  496. 

Moody,  Joshua,  persecuted  by  Cranfield,  400. 

Moore,  Sir  Henry,  Governor  of  New  York ; 
funeral  of,  328.  Controversy  with  the  As 
sembly,  479. 

Moore,  James,  Governor  of  South  Carolina, 
163. 

Moore,  Colonel  James,  chosen  Governor  of 
South  Carolina  by  Convention,  106. 

Moore,  Nicholas,  chief-justice,  of  Pennsylva 
nia,  impeached,  213. 

Moravians,  in  North  Carolina,  152-154 ;  in 
Georgia,  190. 

Moreton,  Joseph,  Governor  of  South  Caroli 
na,  160. 

Morgan,  General  Daniel,  repulsed  at  Quebec, 
496.  Joins  Gates  in  New  York,  506.  De 
feats  Tarleton  at  the  Cowpens,  513. 

Morgan,  Dr.  John,  founder  of  college  in  Phil 
adelphia,  236. 

Morris,  Lewis,  heads  opposition  to  Cornbury 
in  New  Jersey,  268.  Governor  of  New  Jer 
sey,  270,  271.  Dies,  271.  Library,  and  liter 
ary  tastes  of,  280. 

Morris,  Robert  Hunter,  Deputy-governor  of 
Pennsylvania,  222. 

Morristowu,  Washington  in  winter-quarters 
at,  504. 

Morseites,  sect  in  Rhode  Island,  428. 

Morton,  Thomas,  difficulties  with  Plymouth, 
342. 

Monltrie,  William,  repulses  British  fleet  at 
Charleston,  497. 

Mnpgrove,  Mary,  heads  Indian  rising  in 
Georgia,  195. 

NABRAGANSKTT  country,  converted  into 
King's  province,  390.  Seized  by  Dudley 
and  Andros,  392. 

Narragansetts,  take  part  in  Philip's  war, 
357.  Defeat  of,  358.  War  with  Mohegans, 
386.  Connection  with  Gorton,  387. 

Navigation  Act  passed,  and  evaded  in  Vir 
ginia, 17.  Enforced,  19. 

Negro  plot,  303, 305,  320,  435. 

Newcastle,  Delaware,  scene  of  surrender  to 
Penn,  209, 212.  Account  of,  240. 

New  England,  settlements,  in  North  Caroli- 


550 


INDEX. 


na,  133.  In  South  Carolina,  173.  lu  Geor 
gia,  198.  Movement  against  Crown  in 
Georgia,  203.  In  Delaware,  206,  207,  290. 
Settlements  in  New  Jersey,  273.  Quarrel 
•with  Stuyvesant,  291.  Principles  of,  in  New 
Jersey,  275.  Methods  of  dealing  with  pau 
perism  and  crime  in  New  Jersey,  276.  Ef 
fects  on  religion  in  New  Jersey,  279.  Trou 
bles  with  New  Netherlands,  293.  Trade  in 
South  river,  294.  Settlements  on  Long  Isl 
and,  312.  Religion  of,  in  New  York,  317. 
Pauper  system  in  New  York,  325.  Emi 
gration  to  New  York  after  Revolution,  331, 
333.  Confederation  of,  351, 375.  Relations 
with  French,  Dutch,  and  Swedes,  352, 353. 
Policy  toward  Quakers,  354.  Troubles  of 
Confederation  of,  with  Swedes  and  Dutch, 
375.  Meetings  of  Federal  commissioners 
of,  resumed,  377.  Decline  of  confederacy, 
and  last  meeting,  379.  Rhode  Island  ex 
cluded  from  confederacy,  387.  Colonies  of ; 
soil  and  climate,  406.  Emigration  to,  406, 
407.  Purity  of  race ;  uniformity  in  other 
respects,  407.  Population,  408.  Commu 
nity  of  class,  408,  409.  Agriculture  and 
trade,  409,  410.  Manufactures  and  indus 
tries,  411.  Governments,  412.  Taxes  and 
revenue,  413.  Towns,  414.  Judicial  sys 
tems,  415-418.  Lawyers,  418,  419.  Medi 
cine,  420.  Militia,  422.  Seamen,  422,  423. 
Clergy,  423.  Religion,  425.  Organization 
of  churches ;  toleration,  426.  Church  of 
England,  426-428.  Religion  in  Rhode  Isl 
and,  428.  Sabbath  laws  and  observances, 
429.  Church  services,  430.  Church  music, 
431.  Church  buildings ;  early  worship ; 
congregation,  432, 433.  Sunday  in  the  coun 
try,  433.  Daily  religious  observances,  434. 
Witchcraft,  434, 435.  Other  superstitions, 
435,436.  Public  and  private  morals,  437. 
Relaxation  of  austerity,  438.  Crime,  439. 
Pauperism,  441.  Indented  servants,  441, 
442.  Slavery ;  aristocracy,  442.  Large  es 
tates  ;  bequests,  443.  Class  feeling ;  titles, 
444.  Class  feeling  in  college ;  dress ;  opin 
ion  as  to  suffrage,  445.  Handsome  houses 
in  towns,  446.  Houses  in  country,  447.  In 
fluence  on  New  York ;  country  life  and 
manners,  448.  Physical  appearance ;  men 
tal  characteristics,  449,  450.  Dress  and 
houses,  450.  Furniture  and  dress,  451. 
Principal  towns,  452.  Country  amuse 
ments,  453.  Mails  in,  454.  Roads  and  trav 
el,  456.  Inns  and  innkeepers,  456.  Bos 
ton,  456-461.  Marriages,  461, 462.  Funer 
als,  463.  Education,  464.  Schools,  465.  Col 
leges,  466.  Learning  among  early  settlers, 
467.  Literature,  467-^70.  Press  and  news 


papers,  471.    Science  and  art,  472.   Democ 
racy,  472,  473.     Feeling  against  foreigners, 

473.  Feeling  toward  England  ;  politics  of, 

474.  Contrasted  with  Virginia,  475,  520. 
New  Hampshire,  finally  separated  from  Mas 
sachusetts,  361.    Settlement  of  boundary 
with  Massachusetts,  367.     Settlement  of, 
397.   Revival  of  Mason  claims ;  separation 
from  Massachusetts,  398.    Administration 
of  Cranfield,  399.   Resistance  to  Craufield ; 
Andros  ;  separation  from  Massachusetts  ; 
Allen  Governor,  400.    Administrations  of 
Usher,  Bellomont,  and  Dudley,  401.   Aban 
donment  of  Mason  claim ;  Shute,  Vaughan, 
and  Weutworth, 402.  Shute;  Rasle'swar; 
Burnet,403.    Belcher,  403, 404.    A  separate 
Governor    given    to,  404.      Spanish   and 
French  wars,  404, 405.  Resistance  to  Stamp 
Act,  405.    Claims  to  Vermont,  406.    Popu 
lation,  408.    Agriculture,  409.    Industries, 
411.    Government,  412.    Salary  of  Govern 
or,  and  revenue,  413.    Courts, 418.    Church 
music  in,  431.    Education,  465, 466. 

New  Haven  (colony),  settlement  of,  374.  En 
ters  confederacy;  hostility  to  Dutch,  375. 
Hesitates  to  proclaim  Charles  II.,  377.  Ab 
sorbed  by  Connecticut,  under  charter,  378. 
Episcopal  Church  in,  427.  Description  of, 
452. 

New  Jersey,  settlement  of,  263.  Rising  un 
der  James,  and  return  of  Philip  Carteret, 
204.  Divided,  and  West  Jersey  sold  to 
Quakers,  264, 265.  Troubles  of  West  Jer 
sey  with  New  York,  205 ;  of  East  Jersey 
with  same,  265,  266, 298.  East  Jersey  sold 
to  Quakers,  266.  New  Jersey  surrendered 
to  James  II.,  266, 267.  Reverts  to  proprie 
tors,  and  sold  to  Queen  Anne,  267.  Under 
Lord  Cornbury,  268.  Under  Hunter,  269. 
Contests  with  Burnet;  separated  from  New 
York,  270.  Under  Morris  ;  his  contests 
with  the  Assembly,  271.  Under  Belcher, 
271, 272.  Refuses  assent  to  Franklin's  plan 
of  union;  resists  taxation,  272.  Situation 
and  population  of,  273.  Towns ;  trade ,  ag 
riculture,  274.  Society ;  slavery,  275.  Crime, 

276.  Life  on  country-seats  ;  amusements, 

277.  Funerals ;  marriages ;  travel,  278.  Re 
ligion,  278,  279.     Education;  literature; 
post,  280.    Medicine,  281.     Law,  281-283. 
Government,  283.  Supports  Massachusetts 
against  Hillsborough,  480.     Campaign  in, 
503. 

New  Netherlands  Company  established,  285. 

Newport  founded,  385.  Riots  in,  396.  De 
scription  of,  452.  Battle  of,  508. 

Newport,  Christopher,  commands  first  ex 
pedition  to  Virginia,  5. 


INDEX. 


551 


Newtown.    See  Cambridge. 

New  York,  discovery  of,  and  explorations 
in,  285.  Settlement  by  West  India  Com 
pany  ;  by  Patroous,  2S6.  Difficulties  under 
VanTwiller;  growth  of  trade  in,  287.  Open 
to  free-trade ;  Kieft,  2SS.  "  Twelve  men  ;'' 
Indian  war;  "Eight  men,"  280,  290.  De 
cline  under  Kieft,  290,  291.  Effect  of  Stuy- 
vesaut's  arrival ;  "  Nine  men,"  291.  Stuy- 
vesaut's  quarrels  with  the  people  ;  Burgh 
er  government,  292.  Troubles  with  New 
England ;  agitation  on  Long  Island,  293. 
Recovery  of  South  river,  293, 294.  Indian 
war  ;  decline  of  Dutch  power,  294.  Con 
quest  by  English,  295.  Organization  un 
der  English,  296.  Conquest  by  Dutch,  and 
session  to  England  ;  administration  of  An- 
dros,  297 ;  of  Brockholst,  298 ;  of  Dongan, 
298,299.  Andros,  Governor -general;  re 
volt  of  Leisler,  299.  Leisler's  administra 
tion,  surrender,  and  execution,  300.  Under 
Fletcher,  301.  Under  Bellomont,  301,  302. 
Under  Cornbury,  302.  Under  Hunter,  and 
in  war  witn  France,  303.  Under  Burnet 
and  Cosby;  Zenger's  trial,  304.  Struggle 
between  Clarke  and  Van  Dam ;  adminis 
tration  of  Clarke;  Clinton  Governor,  305. 
French  war,  306.  De  Lancey  Lieutenant- 
governor,  306, 307.  Albany  Congress ;  cam 
paign  of  1755, 307.  Campaigns  of  1756  and 
1757 ;  victories  of  Moutcalm,  308.  Cam 
paigns  of  1758  and  1759;  victories  under 
Pitt,  309.  Campaign  of  1760  ;  conquest  of 
Canada ;  under  Coldeu,  310.  Stamp  Act 
Congress  held  in  city  of,  311.  Population 
of,  312.  Trade  and  agriculture,  313,  314. 
Government  and  finance,  315.  Army, 
bench  and  bar,  316.  Medicine,  317.  Cler 
gy,  317, 318.  Churches,  318.  Religious  pol 
icy  of  Dutch,  318,  319.  Church  forced  by 
Cornbnry,  319.  Negro  plot,  320,  321.  Sla 
very,  322.  Indented  servants,  323.  Crime, 
323,324.  Pauperism,  324, 325.  Education, 
325.  Conflict  of  languages,  326.  Aristoc 
racy  and  great  estates,  327,  328.  Dutch 
farmers,  329.  Life  and  amusements,  330. 
Travel  and  post-office,  331.  Albany,  331, 
332.  Literature,  337.  Marriages  and  funer 
als,  337,  338.  Elections  and  politics,  339, 
340.  Early  trade  with  Massachusetts,  346. 
Abandonment  of  nou  -  importation,  483. 
Urges  a  general  Congress;  condition  of 
parties,  4S9.  Assembly  resists  patriots, 
491. 

New  York,  city  of ;  account  of,  333.  Houses ; 
trade,  334.  Amusements  and  holidays  in, 
335,336.  Election  day  in,  339.  Opposition 
to  Stamp  Act,  476.  Affrays  with  soldiers, 


481.  Fortified  by  Americans,  497.  Arrival 
of  British  army  in  harbor  of,  501. 

Nicholson,  Sir  Francis,  Governor  of  Virginia ; 
first  administration,  25.  Second  adminis 
tration,  25,  26.  Governor  of  Maryland,  525. 
Provisional  Governor  of  South  Carolina, 
166.  Lieutenant-governor  of  New  York, 
299.  Commands  expedition  to  Canada, 
303. 

Nicolls,  Colonel  Richard,  as  Governor  of 
New  York  hostile  to  New  Jersey  settlers, 
263.  Arrives  in  New  York  as  royal  com 
missioner,  295.  Governor  of  New  York, 
296.  As  commissioner  in  Massachusetts, 
355.  Proposes  to  Connecticut  to  join  his 
Canadian  expedition,  378. 

"  Ninety-six,"  repulse  of  Greene,  and  aban 
donment  by  British,  514. 

Norfolk  in  1759, 51. 

Normans  from  Channel  Islands;  in  New 
England,  407. 

Norris,  Isaac,  speaker  of  Pennsylvania  As 
sembly  ;  contest  with  Gookin,218. 

Norris,  Isaac,  Jr.,  chosen  agent  with  Frank 
lin  to  England,  223. 

North  Carolina,  position  in  southern  group, 
132.  Early  settlements  in,  132, 133.  Grant 
ed  by  Charles  II.  to  Clarendon  and  oth 
ers,  134, 135.  First  legislature  of,  136.  "  Con 
stitutions  "  of,  and  their  results,  137.  Tur 
bulence  under  Miller,  and  rebellion,  138. 
Revolt  against  Sothel,  and  decline  under 
his  successors  ;  failure  of  "constitutions," 
189.  Progress  under  Archdale,  139, 140.  Re 
volt  against  Johnson,  and  turbulence,  140. 
Indian  wars;  improvement;  faction  un 
der  Eden,  141.  Troubles  under  Burriug- 
ton  and  Everard,  142.  Ceded  to  Crown, 
142, 143.  Progress  under  Gabriel  Johnston, 
143.  In  Frencfh  war,  143, 144.  Condition  un 
der  Arthur  Dobbs,  144, 145.  Under  Tryon, 
145.  Rebellion  of  "Regulators, "146.  Un 
der  Martin,  146, 147.  Chooses  delegate  to 
Congress  of  1774,  147.  Population,  148. 
Government  and  courts,  149.  Revenue,  149, 
150.  Professions,  150.  Church  and  clergy, 
150, 151.  Religion,  151, 152.  Trade  and  ag 
riculture,  152, 153.  Towns  and  slavery,  154. 
Indented  servants,  154, 155.  Character  of 
population,  155.  Travel;  post;  hospitali 
ty  ;  amusements,  156.  Education  and  liter 
ature,  157.  Quarrels  of  Governor  and  As 
sembly,  484.  Defeat  of  Tories,  497. 

North,  Lord,  at  the  head  of  the  ministry,  483. 
Strengthened  by  defeat  of  "Regulators," 
and  elections,  484.  Allows  drawback  on 
tea  to  East  India  Company,  486.  Penal 
measures  against  Boston  and  Massachu* 


552 


INDEX. 


setts,  488.  Failure  of  his  coercive  meas 
ures,  490.  Sustained  in  England  ;  prepares 
for  war,  492.  Attempts  conciliation  afier 
surrender  of  Burgoyue,  508.  Resignation, 
518. 

Northcastle  Heights,  Washington  at,  503. 

Norton,  John,  sent  to  England  with  address, 
355.  Verses  of,  468. 

Norwood,  Colonel,  account  of  Virginia  in 
1650, 43. 

Notley,  Thomas,  Deputy-governor  of  Mary 
land,  105. 

Nott,  Edward,  Deputy-governor  of  Virginia, 
26. 

Nova  Scotia  annexed  to  Massachusetts ; 
conquered  by  Phips,  361. 

Nyantics,  troubles  with,  375. 

O. 

OAKKS,  THOMAS,  agent  of  Massachusetts,  360. 

Oakes,  Urian,  verses  of,  46S. 

O^den,  David,  refuses  to  sustain  Stamp  Act 

Congress,  476. 
Oglethorpe,  James,  General ;    invasion    of 

Florida,  168.    Life  and  character  of,  187- 

189.  Returns  to  England,  and  comes  back, 

190.  Prepares  defences,  191.    Treats  with 
Indians,  and  makes  war  with  Spain,  192. 
Repulses  Spaniards  at  Frederica,  193.    Re 
turns   finally    to   England,  194.     Writes 
warning  against  Spanish  priests,  321. 

Ohio  Company  founded,  30. 

Olive,  Thomas,  Quaker  Governor,  as  judge, 

282. 

Oliver,  Andrew,  forced  to  resign  by  mob,  476. 
Oliver,  Peter,  impeached,  488. 
Oriskany,  battle  of,  506. 
Orkney,  Earl  of,  titular  Governor  of  Virgin 
ia,  26. 
Osborn,  Sir  Danvers,  Governor  of  New  York, 

commits  suicide,  306. 

Oswald,  Richard,  peace  commissioner,  518. 
Oswego,  trading-post  established  by  Burnet 

at,  304.    Captured  by  Montcalm,  370. 
Otis,  James,  at  Stamp  Act  Congress,  311, 

476.    Argument  on  writs  of  assistance,  371. 

Head  of  Massachusetts  delegation  to  Stamp 

Act  Congress,  372. 
Oxenstiern  continues  colonization  policy  of 

Gustavus,  206. 

P. 

PALMER,  ANTHONY,  President  of  the  Coun 
cil  in  Pennsylvania,  221. 

Paoli,  defeat  of  Wayne  at,  505. 

Pappegoia,  John,  Governor  of  New  Sweden, 
207. 

Paris,  treaty  of,  618. 

Parker,  Admiral,  repulsed  at  Charleston,  497. 


Parker,  Henry,  President  of  Georgia,  194, 
195. 

Parker,  James,  establishes  press  at  Wood- 
bridge,  New  Jersey,  280. 

"  Parson's  Cause,"  the,  37-39.  Significance 
of,  39, 40,  61. 

Partridge,  William,  Lieutenant-governor  of 
New  Hampshire  ;  displaced  by  Usher,  401. 

Patroous  instituted,  286.  Their  manors  en 
titled  to  representatives,  315,  327.  Account 
of  estates  of,  327.  Arms  in  cbur«h  at  Al 
bany,  328. 

Pauw,  Michael,  patroon,  2S6. 

Paxtou,  massacre  of  Indians,  and  subsequent 
riot  at,  225, 244. 

Pelham,  Peter,  painter,  472. 

Pemaquid,  Massachusetts,  post  at;  Duubar 
at,  404. 

Peuu,  Hannah,  supports  Logan  against 
Keith,  219. 

Penn,  John,  Proprietary,  and  Governor  of 
Pennsylvania,  225. 

Penn,  William,  obtains  Delaware  from  Duke 
of  York,  210.  Character  and  career  of,  211. 
Obtains  Pennsylvania,  and  issues  an  ad 
dress,  211,  212.  Comes  out;  organizes 
government,  and  treats  with  Indians,  212. 
Founds  Philadelphia,  212,  213.  Returns  to 
England,  213.  Rise  under  James  II. ;  de 
prived  of,  and  regains  government  of 
Pennsylvania,  214.  Second  visit  to  Penn 
sylvania  ;  grants  charters,  and  returns,  215. 
Supports  Logan  and  Evans  against.  David 
Lloyd,  216.  Supports  Logan  against  Lloyd, 
217.  Attempts  to  sell  province  to  Crown  ; 
illness  ;  death,  218.  House  at  Pennsbnry, 
250.  Interest  in  West  Jersey,  265.  With 
others  buys  East  Jersey,  266. 

Peun,  William,  Jr.,  disorders  of,  in  Philadel 
phia,  244. 

Pennsylvania  granted  to  Penn,  211.  Settle 
ment  of,  212,  213.  Difficulties  after  Penn's 
departure,  213.  Schism  of  George  Keith  ; 
royal  government,  214.  New  charters  re 
ceived  on  Penu's  second  visit,  215.  High- 
Church  party;  condition  under  Evans,  216; 
under  Gookin,  217.  Attempted  sale  to 
Crown;  under  Keith,  218.  Paper-money; 
removal  of  Keith;  nuder  Gordon,  219. 
Boundary  disputes,  and  settlement  with 
Maryland  ;  under  Logan  and  Thomas,  220. 
War  with  Spain,  220,  221.  Contests  with 
Hamilton  and  Morris,  221,  222.  In  French 
war,  222  and  ff.  Under  Denny,  223,  224. 
Pontiac's  war;  victory  of  Bouquet ;  mas 
sacres  of  Indians,  225.  Resistance  to  Eng 
land, 225, 226.  Soil  and  climate,  227.  Num 
bers  and  character  of  population,  227,  228. 


INDEX. 


553 


Trade;  commerce;  manufactures,  229,  230. 
Government,  230,  231.  Taxation,  231.  Ju 
dicial  and  legal  system,  232.  Religious 
system,  233-235.  Medicine,  236.  Variety 
of  pursuits,  237.  Tov\us,  237-240.  Aristoc 
racy,  240.  Slavery,  241.  White  servants, 
242.  Crime,  243-246.  Pauperism,  246. 
Backwoods  life,  248.  Farms,  249,  250. 
Amusements  in  country,  251.  Travelling, 
5J52.  Superstition,  253.  Education,  253- 
255.  Literature,  etc.,  255-257.  Press  and 
post,  257.  Life  ill  Philadelphia,  258. 
Dress,  25S,  259.  Amusements,  259.  Mar 
riages  and  funerals,  260.  Society,  260,  261. 
Politics,  261,  2C2.  Non-importation  agree 
ment,  481.  Supremacy  of  moderate  party, 
and  divisions,  4S9. 

Penobscot,  defeat  of  Massachusetts'  expedi 
tion  to,  510. 

Pepperell  house  at  Portsmouth,  446. 

Pepperell,  Sir  William,  commands  Louisburg 
expedition,  368.  Estate  of,  443. 

Pequods,warvith  Puritans,  and  extermina 
tion  of,  349,  373. 

Percy,  George,  character  of,  4.  Acting-Gov 
ernor  of  Virginia,  7. 

Percy,  Lord,  covers  retreat  from  Lexington, 
493. 

Peter,  Hugh,  comes  out  to  Massachusetts 
with  younger  Wiuthrop,  349. 

Phelps,  Mr.,  removal  from  commission  of 
peace  in  Boston,  444. 

Philadelphia  founded,  212.  Chartered,  215. 
Account  of,  237-239.  Crime  in,  244,245. 
Pauperism,  246.  Philanthropy,  247.  Edu 
cation  in,  254,  255.  Literature,  256.  Press 
and  post,  257.  Society,  25S.  Amusements, 
259.  Manners  and  life,  260,  261.  Resist 
ance  to  introduction  of  tea,  486, 487.  Taken 
by  British,  505. 

Philip,  chief  of  Pokanokets,  war  of,  in  New 
England,  357,  378,  391.  Death  of,  358. 

Philipse  manor  and  manor-house,  327, 328. 

Phillips,  General,  in  Virginia,  515. 

Phips,  Spencer,  Lieutenant-governor  of  Mas 
sachusetts,  368.  Death  of,  369. 

Phips,  Sir  William,  quarrels  with  Governor 
Fletcher,  301.  Character  and  career  of; 
Governor  of  Massachusetts,  361.  Opposed 
by  Connecticut,  381 ;  by  Rhode  Island,  393. 
Controversy  with  Usher, 401. 

"Pietas  et  Gratulatio,"  account  of,  469. 

Pigot,  General,  in  command  of  British  at 
Newport,  508. 

Pike,  Robert,  fined  for  travelling  on  Sunday, 
429. 

Piracy,  in  North  Carolina,  140, 141 ;  in  South 
Carolina,  161,  165 ;  in  Pennsylvania,  217, 


243,  244 ;  in  New  York,  301,  324  ;  in  Rhode 
Island,  393.  Punishment  of,  iu  New  Eng 
land,  439. 

Pitt,  William,  effect  of  his  administration  in 
Virginia,  35;  iu  Pennsylvania, 224  ;  in  New 
York,  309;  in  Massachusetts,  370.  Opposes 
Stamp  Act,  477.  Theory  of  taxation  ;  Earl 
of  Chatham,  and  prime-minister,  478.  Re 
jection  of  his  conciliatory  measures,  492. 

Plymouth,  settlement  of,  341.  Williams  at, 
347.  People  in  Connecticut,  348.  Annexed 
to  Massachusetts,  361.  Trading  -  post  on 
the  Connecticut,  373.  Dealings  with  royal 
commissioners,  377.  Warns  off  Roger  Wil 
liams,  385.  Withdrawal  of  claim  to  Paw- 
tuxet  lauds,  389. 

Pocahontas,  falsity  of  tradition  of  her  rescue 
of  Smith,  6.  Abduction  by  Argall ;  her 
marriage  used  by  Dale,  9. 

Pollock,  Thomas,  president  of  Council  in 
North  Carolina,  141. 

Pontiac,  war  of,  310. 

Port  Royal,  capture  of,  by  English,  303,  361, 
363. 

Porter,  John,  punished  for  abusing  his  fa 
ther,  437. 

Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire,  founded,  397. 
Episcopal  Church  in,  427.  Cutts  and  Pep 
perell  houses  at,  446.  Description  of,  452. 
Latin  school,  465. 

Portsmouth,  Rhode  Island,  founded,  385. 

Pory,  John,  expedition  to  North  Carolina, 
132. 

Post-office,  in  Virginia,  87  ;  in  North  Caro 
lina,  156;  in  Pennsylvania,  257 ;  in  New 
Jersey,  280;  in  New  York,  331;  in  New 
England,  454. 

Pott,  John,  Governor  of  Virginia,  13. 

Pownal,  Thomas,  Governor  of  Massachu 
setts,  369.  Transferred  to  South  Carolina, 
370. 

Presbyterians,  in  South  Carolina,  174-176; 
in  Pennsylvania,  228,  234.  Efforts  for  edu 
cation  iu  Pennsylvania',  254.  Position  in 
New  Jersey,  279.  For  education  in  New 
Jersey,  280.  Persecuted  by  Cornbury,  302. 
In  New  York,  317,  319.  Form  of  worship 
of,  rejected  by  Massachusetts,  352.  In  New 
Hampshire,  402, 473. 

Prescott,  Colonel,  commands  at  Bunker  Hill, 
493. 

Prevost,  General,  marches  from  St.  Augus 
tine,  and  makes  himself  master  of  Georgia, 
509.  Retreats  from  Charleston  to  Savan 
nah,  and  repulses  French  and  Americans, 
510. 

Prideanx,  General,  killed  at  Fort  Niagara, 


554 


INDEX. 


Princeton,  college  at,  280.  Students  from  New 
York,  326.  Battle  of,  504. 

Printz,  John,  Governor  of  New  Sweden,  20G, 
207.  Quarrels  with  Dutch,  291,  C93. 

Providence  founded,  3S5.  Cut  off  from  Rhode 
Island,  388.  Riot  at,  389.  Partially  destroy 
ed  by  Indians,  391.  Description  of,  462. 
People  of,  burn  Gaspee,  484. 

Pulaski,  Count,  killed  at  Savannah,  510. 

Puritans,  rise  of,  in  Virginia,  14.  Laws 
against,  15.  Ascendency  of  in,  and  effect 
upon  Virginia,  1C,  17.  Appearance  in  Ma 
ryland  ;  support  Ingle,  100.  Obtain  polit 
ical  power ;  settle  at  Providence,  102.  De 
feat  Stone,  103.  Receive  only  lukewarm 
support  from  Cromwell  in  Maryland,  104. 
In  New  Jersey,  263, 264.  Found  Massachu 
setts  Company,  343.  Objects  of  Puritan 
party  in  so  doing,  344.  Emigrate  on  Laud's 
accession  to  Canterbury,  346, 406.  Charac 
ter  of  their  clergy,  423.  Sunday  of,  429, 430, 
433.  Superstitious,  435.  Morals  of,  436. 
Relaxation  of  austerity,  438.  Theory  of 
criminal  punishments,  439,  440.  Views  of, 
as  to  education,  464.  Learning  among  first 
settlers,  467. 

Putnam,  Israel,  heads  opposition  to  Stamp 
Act,  384. 

Q- 

QUAKERS,  in  Maryland,  106, 108, 123, 124 ;  in 
North  Carolina,  137,  150,  151,  152,  154 ;  in 
South  Carolina,  176 ;  in  Georgia,  198.  Fail 
ure  of  settlement  under  Fenwick,  209.  Set 
tle  Pennsylvania,  212.  Opposition  to,  in 
Pennsylvania,  213.  Schism  among,  in  Penn 
sylvania,  214.  Hostility  to  Governors  and 
to  war  in  Pennsylvania,  223.  Emigration 
to  Pennsylvania,  228.  Tolerance  of,  in 
Pennsylvania,  233.  Position  in  Pennsyl 
vania,  234.  Hostility  to  slavery,  241.  Treat 
ment  of  crime,  243.  Enlightened  spirit, 
247.  Divisions  on  dress,  259.  Politics, 
261,  262.  Settle  in  West  Jersey,  273.  Re 
sist  slavery  in  New  Jersey,  275.  Standing 
in  New  Jersey,  279.  Persecuted  in  New 
York,  294,  318,  319.  In  Massachusetts,  354. 
In  Rhode  Island,  391,  392. 

Quarry,  Colonel,  head  of  High-Church  party 
in  Pennsylvania,  216,  234. 

Quebec,  act  for  government  of  Canada,  489. 
Defeat  of  Americans  at,  496. 


RAHL,  Colonel,  defeated  and  mortally  wound 
ed  at  Trenton,  504. 

Rainsford  Island,  hospital  on,  421. 

Raleigh,  Sir  Walter,  attempts  at  colonization, 
2,132. 


Randolph,  Edward,  Crown  agent  in  New 
England,  358.  Intrigues  in  Boston  ;  estab 
lishes  government  by  commission,  359. 
Regains  favor  at  William's  court,  360.  Deal 
ings  with  Connecticut,  379 ;  with  Rhode 
Island,  391, 392.  Meddling  iu  New  Hamp 
shire,  398. 

Randolph,  Sir  John,  Attorney-general,  53. 

Randolph,  John,  of  Roanoke ;  description  of 
Virginia  in  1822,  42. 

Randolph,  Peyton,  President  of  Congress, 
491. 

Rasle,  Stephen,  his  settlement  and  wars,  362. 
Overthrow  and  death,  365.  Effect  of  his 
wars  on  New  Hampshire, 403. 

Rawdou,  Lord,  joins  Clinton  at  Charleston, 
510.  At  Camden,  512.  Defeats  Greene  at 
Hobkirk's  Hill ;  goes  to  England,  514 

Reading,  account  of,  239. 

Reading,  John,  President  of  Council  in  New 
Jersey,  271. 

Rensselaer,  Van,  manor  of;  elects  represent 
ative,  315.  Account  of  manor  of,  327.  Fam 
ily  of,  329. 

Rensselaer,  Kiliaen  Van,  patroon,  286.  Colo 
ny  of,  at  Beverwyck,  288. 

Rensselaer,  Stephen  Van ;  wife's  funeral,  338. 

Reynolds,  Captain  John,  Governor  of  Geor 
gia,  195. 

Rhett,  William,  pursues  pirates  of  South  Car 
olina,  165. 

Rhode  Island  makes  war  on  Dutch,  293. 
Philip's  war  opens  in,  357.  Paper-money 
of,  in  Massachusetts,  367.  Boundary  dis 
putes  with  Connecticut,  378,  379,  381,  390, 
391.  Settles  boundary  with  Connecticut, 
382.  Settlement  of,  385.  Character  of  set 
tlers,  386.  Gorton  disturbances,  386,  387. 
Williams  returns  with  patent,  387.  At 
tempts  to  establish  patent  government; 
faction  and  disorder,  388.  War  with  Dutch ; 
continued  disorders,  389.  Obtains  charter, 
and  sets  up  government,  390.  Relations 
with  royal  commissioners,  390,  391.  Gov 
ernment  under  charter ;  Quakers ;  Philip's 
war,  391.  Under  Andros ;  old  charter  gov 
ernment  re-established,  392.  Condition 
under  William  and  Anne,  393.  Spanish 
and  French  wars,  394.  Financial  difficul 
ties,  395.  Resistance  to  taxation,  and  del 
egates  sent  to  Stamp  Act  Congress,  395, 
396.  Differs  from  other  New  England  col 
onies,  407.  Population,  408.  Agriculture, 
409.  Trade,  410.  Courts,  418.  Religion 
in,  428.  Theatre  in,  454.  Roads  in,  455. 
Education,  465, 466.  Affrays  with  revenue 
officers,  481.  Affair  of  Gaspee,  484.  De 
mands  a  general  Congress,  489. 


INDEX. 


555 


Ribault,  Jean,  attempts  settlements  in  South 
Carolina,  158, 159. 

Richards,  John,  agent  of  Massachusetts,  359. 

Ritteuhouse,  David,  scientific  labors  of,  256. 

Robin,  Abbe,  account  of  church  music  in 
Boston,  431. 

Rochambeau,  Marshal,  joins  Washington, 
and  marches  to  Yorktown,  515. 

Rockiugham,  Marquis  of,  death  of,  518. 

Rockingham,  ministry  of,  deal  with  Stamp 
Act,  47T.  Dissolved,  478. 

Rockingham  Whigs  oppose  Port  Bill  and 
other  penal  acts,  488.  Return  to  office,  518. 

Rocky  Mount,  battle  of,  512. 

Rogerenes  make  trouble  in  Connecticut,  382. 

Rogers,  John,  verses  of,  468. 

Rogers's  "Rangers;"  service  in  French  war, 
405. 

Roman  Catholics  in  Maryland;  see  Chapter 
III.  generally,  and  also  pp.  119,  120.  In 
North  Carolina,  151.  lu  Pennsylvania,  234. 
Laws  against,  in  New  Jersey,  270.  Dread 
of,  in  New  York,  293,  299,  320.  Hatred  of, 
in  New  England,  473. 

Roswell,  Sir  Henry,  patentee  of  Second  Dor 
chester  Company,  343.  Judgment  agaiust 
as  one  of  patentees  of  Massachusetts  char 
ter,  347. 

Rotch,  owner  of  tea-ship  in  Boston,  4S6. 

Ruggles,  Timothy,  President  of  Stamp  Act 
Congress,  311,  476. 

Rush,  Dr.  Benjamin,  237. 

Russell,  Noadiah,  account  of  dreams  and 
prophesies,  436. 

Rutledge,  John,  chosen  delegate  to  Stamp 
Act  Congress,  171.  Leader  in  Congress, 
476.  Urges  defence  of  Charleston,  510. 

Rysingh,  John,  takes  Fort  Casimir;  Gov 
ernor  of  New  Sweileu ;  defeated  by  Stuy- 
vesaut,  207,  293. 

S. 

SALEM,  settlement  at,  343.  Church,  344,  345. 
Roger  Williams  at,  347.  Witchcraft,  434. 
Description  of,  452. 

Saltonstall,  Gurdon,  Governor  of  Connecti 
cut,  381.  Death  of,  382. 

Salzburgers  in  Georgia,  190, 191, 194, 198,  201, 
202. 

Sandys,  Sir  Edwin,  treasurer  of  London  Com 
pany,  9.  James  I.'s  opinion  of,  11. 

Saratoga,  destroyed  by  Indians,  306.  Sur 
render  of  Btirgoyne  at,  507. 

Savannah  founded,  189.  Government  of,  198. 
Description  of,  201.  Taken  by  British,  509. 
Repulse  of  French  and  Americans  at,  510. 
Evacuated  by  British,  516. 

Say-and-Sele,  Lord,  patentee  of  Connecti 
cut,  348,  373. 


Saybrook  founded  by  Winthrop,  373.  Ques 
tion  of  levying  duties  at,  375.  Audros  at, 
378. 

Sayle,  William,  explores  coast  of  Carolinas, 
136.  Governor  of  South  Carolina,  159. 

Scheuectady  destroyed,  300.  Centre  of  fur 
trade, 331. 

Schuyler,  Peter,  repulses  French,  301.  Takes 
Iroquois  to  England,  303.  Obtains  aid  in 
England,  363. 

Schuyler,  Peter,  estate  of,  in  New  Jersey,  277. 

Schuyler,  Philip,  General,  gives  up  command 
to  Montgomery,  495.  Retreats  before  Bur- 
goyne,  and  is  superseded  by  Gates,  506. 

Schuylers,  estates  and  influence  of,  327,  329. 

Scotch-Irish  in  Virginia,  66;  in  South  Caro 
lina,  174;  in  Pennsylvania,  228,  244,  248, 
249,  262 ;  in  New  Jersey,  273 ;  in  New 
Hampshire,  402,  407,  473.  Manufacture 
linen,  411. 

Scott,  John,  heads  revolt  against  Dutch  on 
Long  Island,  295. 

Scott,  John  Morin,  writes  for  Independent 
Reflector  (N.  Y.),  and  opposes  Church,  319. 

Scovil,  sent  out  to  deal  with  Regulators  of 
South  Carolina,  170. 

Sears,  Isaac,  leads  popular  opposition  to 
Stamp  Act,  476.  Resists  abandonment  of 
non-importation,  483. 

Sedgewick,  Robert,  arrival  with  Parliament 
troops,  376. 

Servants,  indented,  in  Virginia,  69-72;  in 
Maryland,  125, 126 ;  in  North  Carolina,  154 ; 
in  South  Carolina,  180, 181 ;  in  Georgia,  197, 
202 ;  in  Pennsylvania,  242 ;  in  New  Jersey, 
276 ;  in  New  York,  323 ;  in  New  England, 
441. 

Sevier,  John,  at  battle  of  King's  Mountain, 
512. 

Sewall,  Samuel,  opposition  to  English  Church 
and  forms,  426 ;  to  wigs,  438 ;  to  slavery, 
442.  Diary  of,  467.  Tract  against  slavery, 
468.  Reads  Ben  Jousou,  471.  Hostility 
to  external  power,  473. 

Seymour,  Sir  Henry,  as  to  charter  of  William 
and  Mary,  74. 

Shackamaxon,  scene  of  Penn's  Indian  treaty, 
212. 

Shaftesbury,  Earl  of,  patentee  of  North  Caro 
lina,  134.  Draws  "  constitutions  "  of  Caro 
linas,  136.  Favors  Culpepper,  138. 

Sharpe,  Horatio,  Governor  of  Maryland;  con 
tests  with  Assembly,  110. 

Shawomet.    See  Warwick. 

Shelburne,  Lord,  conduct  in  peace  negotia 
tions,  518. 

Shelby,  Isaac,  at  battle  of  King's  Mountain, 
512. 


556 


INDEX. 


Sherwood,  Grace,  ducked  for  witchcraft,  55. 

Shippeu,  Dr.  William,  lectures  in  Philadel 
phia,  236. 

Shirley,  William,  sustains  Washington  in 
controversy  as  to  rank,  110.  At  Oswego, 
307,  369.  Replaced  by  London  as  com- 
mauder-in-chief,  308.  Governor  of  Massa 
chusetts,  36T.  Louisbnrg  expedition ;  goes 
to  England,  3GS.  Commander-in-chief,  369. 

Shute,  Samuel,  Governor  of  Massachusetts, 
364.  Quarrels  with  House,  and  goes  to 
England,  365.  Set  aside  for  Burnet,  366. 
Appeals  to  Rhode  Island  for  aid,  394.  Gov 
ernor  of  New  Hampshire,  402,  403. 

Skelton,  John,  pastor  of  Salem  Church,  343. 

Slavery  in  Virginia,  67-69 ;  in  Maryland,  125 ; 
in  North  Carolina,  154 ;  in  South  Carolina, 
181;  in  Georgia,  202;  in  Pennsylvania,  241; 
in  New  Jersey,  275 ;  in  New  York,  322 ;  in 
New  England,  408,442. 

Sloaghter,  Henry,  Governor  of  New  York, 
300. 

Smibert,  John,  painter,  472. 

Smith,  John,  character  of,  4.  Attacks  upon, 
5.  His  administration,  and  veracity  as  an 
historian,  6.  Blamed  by  Company,  and 
returns  to  England,  7. 

Smith,  Sir  Thomas,  defeated  as  treasurer  of 
London  Company,  9. 

Smith,  Thomas,  Governor  of  South  Carolina, 
162. 

Smith,  William,  chief-justice,  writes  for  In 
dependent  Reflector,  319. 

Sothel,  Seth,  Governor  of  North  Carolina, 
138, 139.  Seizes  government  of  South  Car 
olina,  161. 

Southampton,  Earl  of,  treasurer  of  London 
Company,  9. 

South  Carolina,  French  settlements  in,  158, 
159.  Granted  to  Clarendon  and  others, 

159.  Progress  under  West  and  Moreton, 

160.  Faction  and  turbulence  in,  161.  Aban 
donment  of  "constitutions;"  introduction 
of  rice  ;  progress  under  Archdale,  162.  Dif 
ficulties  under  Moore  and  Nathaniel  John- 
eon,  163.    Progress  under  Tynte  and  Cra 
ven,  164.    Administration  of  Robert  John 
son,  164, 165.   Difficulties  with  pirates,  165. 
Deposition   of  Johnson ;  progress  under 
Nicholson ;  sale  to  Crown,  166.    Progress 
under  Johnson's  second  administration, 
167.    Spanish  war,  168.    Administration  of 
Glen,  168, 169.    French  war,  and  war  with 
Cherokee?,  169, 170.    Regulators,  170.    Re 
sistance  to  England,  171.     Climate,  soil, 
etc.;  population,  172.    Elements  of  popu 
lation,  173.    Religion  and  clergy,  174-176. 
Government,  176, 177.    Revenue  and  taxa 


tion,  177, 178.  Legal  system,  178.  Profes 
sions  and  agriculture,  179.  Trade,  ISO.  Ser 
vants,  180, 181.  Slavery,  181-183.  Aristoc 
racy,  183.  Charleston,  183,  184.  Travel; 
amusements,  184.  Luxury  ;  life  on  fron 
tier,  185.  Education  and  literature,  185, 186. 
Opposition  to  Stamp  Act,  477.  British  in, 
512. 

Spain  ;  settlements  in  Florida,  and  attacks 
on  Huguenots,  159.  Troubles  with  South 
Carolina,  161-168.  Hostility  to  Georgia, 

191.  Repulse  Oglethorpe  at  St.  Augustine, 

192.  Defeated  by  Oglethorpe  at  Frederica, 

193.  Dread  of,  in  New  York,  320, 321.    At 
titude  in  peace  negotiations,  518. 

Speedwell,  pilgrim  ship,  341. 

Spencer,  Dr.,  lectures  in  Philadelphia,  256. 

Spofiord,  John,  tried  for  cursing  merchants, 
437. 

Spotswoodj  Alexander,  Governor  of  Virgin 
ia  ;  character  and  administration  of,  27,  28. 
Opens  iron  mines,  63.  Reply  to  Burgesses 
as  to  their  education,  88.  Suppresses  in 
surrection  in  North  Carolina,  140 ;  and  pi 
rates*  141. 

Springfield  comes  within  jurisdiction  of  Mas 
sachusetts,  374. 

Stanwix,  General,  victories  on  the  Ohio,  309, 
370. 

Stark,  John,  at  Bunker  Hill,  493.  Defeat* 
British  at  Benningtou,  507. 

Stephens,  Samuel,  Governor  of  North  Caro 
lina,  136, 137. 

Stephens,  William,  president  of  Georgia,  194. 

Stenben,  Baron,  joins  American  army,  507. 
In  Virginia,  515. 

Stiegel,  Baron,house  at  Mannheim,  Peuusyl- 
vania,  250. 

Stirling,  Lady,  agent  of,  driven  from  Long 
Island  by  Stuyvesant,  291. 

Stirling,  Lord,  in  command  at  New  York, 
497.  Beaten  and  taken  prisoner  at  Long 
Island,  502. 

Stith,  Rev.  William,  historian,  87. 

St.  Leger,  Colonel,  repulsed  atFortSchuyler, 
506. 

St.  Mary's,  Maryland,  foundation  and  de 
scription  of,  118. 

Stone,  William,  Governor  of  Maryland,  101. 
Removed,  and  replaced  by  Clayborne,  103. 
Defeated  by  Puritans,  103, 104. 

Stony  Point  captured  by  Wayne,  510. 

Stoughton,  Israel,  disabled  from  office  for 
denying  power  of  magistrates,  348. 

Stonghton,  William,  agent  of  Massachusetts 
in  England,  359.  Administration  as  Lien- 
tenant-governor;  Death  of,  362.  Descrip 
tion  of  Puritan  emigrants,  409. 


INDEX. 


557 


Stuyvesant,  Peter,  builds  Port  Casimir,  and 
reduces  New  Sweden,  20T,  293,  294.  Gov 
ernment  of  Delaware,  208.  Appointed  di 
rector  of  New  Netherlands,  290.  Arrival, 
and  first  actions,  291.  Quarrels  with  pop 
ular  party ;  settles  Connecticut  boundary, 
292.  Difficulties  with  New  England,  and 
on  Long  Island,  293.  Repels  Indians,  and 
persecutes  Lutherans  and  Quakers,  294. 
Represses  Scott's  outbreak ;  besieged  by 
English,  295.  Surrenders  to  English,  296. 
Brought  to  terms  by  confederacy  of  New 
England,  352. 

Sullivan,  John,  General,  defeated  on  the 
lakes,  and  retreats,  496.  Succeeds  Lee,  and 
joins  Washington,  503.  Falls  back  at  the 
Brandywine,  505.  Defeated  at  Newport, 
509. 

Snmner,  Increase,  conversation  with  Ames 
as  to  suffrage,  445. 

Sumter,  Thomas,  partisan  leader,  511.  At 
Rocky  Mount,  and  Hanging  Rock;  routed 
by  Tarletou,512.  Clears  South  Carolina, 
514. 

Sunbury,  Georgia,  government  of,  198.  De- 
sci'iption  of,  201.  Academy,  203. 

Sunderland,  Lord,  letter  of  Connecticut  to, 
380. 

Surriage,  Agnes,  mistress  of  Sir  Harry  Prank- 
land,  438. 

Swaaueudael,  founded  on  South  river,  and 
destroyed,  205,  287. 

Swanzey,  burned  by  Indians,  35T. 

Swedes,  element  of  population  in  Delaware 
and  Pennsylvania,  228.  In  New  Jersey, 
273.  Troubles  with  Dutch,  290,  293. 

Swift,  Jonathan,  plan  of  becoming  an  Amer 
ican  bishop,  26. 

T. 
TAILER,  WILLIAM,  Lieutenant-governor  of 

Massachusetts,  363. 
Talcott,  Joseph,  Governor  of  Connecticut, 

382. 
Tarleton,  Colonel,  ravages  South  Carolina, 

511.    Defeats  Sumter,  512.    Beaten  at  the 

Cowpens,  513. 
Teach,  leader  of  pirates  in  North  Carolina, 

141.    Killed,  142.    In  South  Carolina,  165. 

Property  in  Philadelphia,  243. 
Thacher,  Oxenbridge,  argument  on  writs  of 

assistance,  3T1. 
Thacher,  Rev.  Thomas,  publishes  tract  on 

small-pox,  420. 
Theatre,  in  Virginia,  87 ;  in  Maryland,  129 ; 

in  South  Carolina,  184 ;  in  Pennsylvania, 

259, 260 ;  in  New  York,  332,  336 ;  in  Rhode 

Island,  454 ;  in  Boston,  460. 


Thomas,  General,  retreats  from  Quebec,  496. 

Thomas,  George,  Deputy-governor  of  Penn 
sylvania,  220,  221. 

Ticonderoga,  battle  of,  209,  370.  Captured  by 
Allen,  493.  Abandoned  by  St.  Clair,  506. 

Tienhoven,  Cornells  Van,  secretary  and  de 
fender  of  Stuyvesant ;  schout  at  New  Am 
sterdam,  292. 

Tobacco  begins  to  be  important  in  Virginia, 
10.  Warehouses,  52.  Importance  as  sta 
ple  ;  cultivation,  etc.,  in  Virginia,  64,  65 ;  in 
Maryland,  116. 

Towns,  "  paper,"  of  Virginia,  51.  County,  of 
Virginia,  52 ;  of  New  England,  414. 

Townshend,  Charles,  American  policy  of, 
478.  Death  of,  479. 

Trenton,  New  Jersey,  description  of,  274 
Battle  of,  504. 

Trott,  Nicholas,  popular  leader  in  South  Car 
olina,  and  bought  by  government,  163. 
Conduct  as  chief- justice,  and  efforts  for 
removal,  165, 166. 

Trumbull,  Jonathan,  opposes  Stamp  Act, 
384.  Appearance  as  Governor,  444. 

Tryon,  William,  Governor  of  North  Carolina, 
145.  Suppresses  "  Regulators,"  146.  Gov 
ernor  of  New  York ;  foments  party  divi 
sions,  497.  Raids  in  Connecticut,  510. 

Tufton,  Robert.    See  Mason. 

Twiller,  Wouter  Van,  Director  of  New  Neth 
erlands,  287.  Removal,  288. 

Tynte,  Colonel  Edward,  Governor  of  South 
Carolina,  164. 

U. 

UNOAS,  kills  Miantonomo,  386. 

Underbill,  John,  commands  troops  in  Dutch 
war  with  Indians,  290.  Takes  Dutch  fort 
on  the  Connecticut,  293.  Captures  Pequod 
fort,  349. 

United  States,  condition  at  time  of  Treaty 
of  Paris,  519. 

Ury,  John,  victim  of  New  York  negro  plot, 
320. 

Usher,  John,  Lieutenant-governor  of  New 
Hampshire,  400.  Controversy  with  Phips ; 
displaced  by  Partridge,  401.  Again  Lieu 
tenant-governor  ;  controversies  with  Dud 
ley,  and  removal,  401, 401 

Usselincx,  William,  suggests  West  Indian 
Company  to  Gustavus  Adolphus,  206. 

V. 

VALLEY  FOBGE,  Washington  in  winter-quar 
ters  at,  506, 507. 

Vane,  Sir  Harry,  the  younger,  arrival  of,  in 
Massachusetts ;  Governor,  349.  Defeated 
for  re-election,  and  returns  to  England, 350. 
Aids  Williams  to  obtain  patent  of  Rhode 


558 


INDEX. 


Island,  387.  Writes  letter  of  reproof  to 
Rhode  Island,  389. 

Vandreuil,  Count  de,  surrenders  Montreal, 
310.  Threatened  by  Rhode  Island,  394. 

Vaughan,  George,  Lieutenant-governor  of 
New  Hampshire,  402. 

Vergennes,  Count  de,  share  in  negotiations 
for  peace,  518,  519.  . 

Verhulst,  William,  Director  of  New  Nether 
lands,  286. 

Vermont,  grants  in,  by  Governor  Wentworth, 
405.  Claims  of  New  Hampshire  to  ;  quali 
ty  of  land  in,  406. 

Vernon,  Admiral,  assists  invasion  of  Florida, 
192. 

Vincennes,  capture  of,  509. 

Virginia,  position  among  the  colonies;  di 
vision  of  her  colonial  history,  1.  Form  of 
government  established  by  charter,  and 
instructions  of  London  Company,  2,  3. 
Popular  idea  of,  3,  4.  Character  of  first 
emigrants  to;  dissensions  among  leaders. 
6.  Repulse  of  Indians ;  character  of  coun 
try,  6.  New  charter,  and  government  by 
martial  law,  7.  Petitions  against  Argall, 
8.  Development  under  Dale  and  Argall ; 
character  of  immigration,  10.  Progress 
under  Yeardley  and  Wyatt,  10, 11.  Resists 
royal  commissioners ;  establishment  of  po 
litical  principles  of  representative  govern 
ment  ;  courts  extended ;  law  against  well 
born  malefactors,  13.  First  relations  with 
Maryland,  14.  Rise  of  Puritan  party  in ; 
Royalist  sentiments  of,  14, 15.  Religious 
and  civil  policy  ;  second  war  with  Indians, 
15.  Hatred  of  execution  of  King,  and 
strength  of  Royalist  party ;  surrenders  to 
commissioners  of  Parliament,  16.  Under 
Protectorate,  16,  IT.  Royalist  reaction  and 
its  effect,  18.  State  of,  at  outbreak  of  Ba 
con's  rebellion,  20.  Reasons  for  failure  of 
rebellion  in  state  of  society  in,  22.  Under 
Stuarts,  24.  Relations  with  other  colonies, 
24,  25.  Virginia  in  eighteenth  century,  26, 
27.  Takes  part  in  expedition  against  Car- 
thagena ;  religious  revival  in,  29.  Condi 
tion  of,  after  French  war,  36, 37.  Opposes 
Stamp  Act,  but  fails  to  send  delegates  to 
Congress,  which  she  supports,  40.  Changes 
in,  since  1765,  41.  Condition  of,  in  1650, 
42, 43.  Population  of,  44.  Taxation  in,  44, 
45.  Militia  of,  45, 46.  Navy  and  shipping ; 
expenses  of  government,  46.  Governor, 
powers  of,  in,  46, 47.  Council,  powers  and 
privileges  of,  47.  Assembly,  powers  and 
privileges  of,  47,  48.  Judicial  and  legal 
system,  48,  49.  Regulation  of  attorney?, 
50.  Distribution  of  population  and  towns, 


50,  51.  Legal  profession  in,  53.  Medical 
profession  in  ;  Church  of,  54.  Intolerance, 
55.  Decline  of  Church,  5G.  Intolerance 
in  1745,  57.  Growth  of  dissenting  sects, 
57,  58.  Vestries,  58,  59.  Organization  of 
Church ;  commissary,  power  and  rights 
of;  dread  of  a  bishop,  59,  60.  Clergy 
of,  60,  61.  Trade,  61,  62.  Products  and 
manufactures,  62-64.  Tobacco  in,  64,  65. 
Origin,  and  races  of  people;  classes  in, 
66.  Slavery  in,  67-69.  Indented  servants, 
69-71.  Crime  and  punishments;  pauper 
ism, 71.  Lowest  class  of  whites,  72.  Middle 
class,  72,  73.  Upper  class,  73.  Education, 
74,  75.  Schools  and  libraries  in  eighteenth 
century,  75.  William  and  Mary  College, 
74,  75,  76.  Education  of  Virginians  abroad, 
76.  Style  of  living  ;  hospitality,  76,  77. 
Travel  in,  77,  78.  Houses  in,  78.  Planta 
tions  and  great  houses,  79.  Style  of  living, 
and  extravagance,  79, 80.  Debts  of  Virgin 
ians,  SO,  81.  Life  of  great  planter,  81,  82. 
Life  of  Virginian  lady,  82.  Description  of 
Virginian  lady,  82,  83.  Amusements  in 
country,  and  at  Williamsburg,  83-86.  Du 
elling;  gaming,  86.  Literature;  theatre; 
post-office,  87.  Private  libraries,  87,  88. 
Politics  and  elections,  88.  Entail,  89. 
Aristocracy,  89-91.  Character  of  aristoc 
racy,  91,  92.  Efforts  to  settle  North  Caro 
lina,  133 ;  to  settle  Delaware,  205.  Sup 
ports  Massachusetts  against  Hillsborough, 
480.  Resolution  against  taxation  ;  disso 
lution  of  Burgesses  and  convention,  and 
non- importation,  481.  Non- importation 
slackens,  483.  Petition  against  slave-trade 
disregarded,  484.  Supports  Massachu 
setts  in  scheme  of  correspondence  of  colo 
nies,  485.  Resists  Dnnmore,  and  elects  a 
committee  of  correspondence,  489.  British 
in,  51  ft.  Contrasted  with  New  England, 
520. 

W. 

WAT.T>RON,  RIOHATOD,  Major, Deputy-president 
of  New  Hampshire,  398.  Expelled  from 
Council ;  land  suits  with  Mason,  399  ;  with 
Allen,  402.  Abused  by  his  son,  who  is  pun 
ished,  437. 

Walker,  Admiral,  commands  fleet  against 
Canada,  303,  363. 

Walker,  Henderson,  Governor  of  North  Car. 
olina,  140. 

Ward,  Nathaniel,  writings  of,  468. 

Ward,  Samuel,  contest  with  Hopkins,  395. 

Warren,  Admiral,  co-operates  at  siege  of 
Lonisburg,  368. 

Warren,  Joseph,  death  of,  at  Bunker  Hill, 
494. 


INDEX. 


559 


Warwick  founded,  386.  Named  for  earl,  3ST. 
Cat  off  from  Rhode  Island,  389.  Destroyed 
by  ludians,  391. 

Washington,  Colonel,  at  the  Cowpens,  513. 

Washington,  George,  early  life  of,  31.  Expe 
dition  to  Fort  Du  Quesue ;  surprises  De 
Jumonville;  surrenders  at  Great  Meadows, 
32.  Remonstrates  as  to  rank;  joins  Brad- 
dock's  expedition,  33.  Brings  off  troops 
after  defeat ;  at  head  of  Virginian  forces 
in  the  war,  34.  Joins  Forbes  in  capture 
of  Fort  Du  Quesne;  retires  to  Mount  Ver- 
non  and  marries,  35.  Contest  as  to  rank 
in  army,  46, 109.  Effect  of  defeat  at  Great 
Meadows  in  Pennsylvania,  222.  Elected 
commander-iu-chief,  and  takes  command, 
495.  Marches  to  New  York,  49T.  Retreats 
from  Long  Island  and  New  York,  502.  Re 
treats  up  the  Hudson,  and  through  New 
Jersey,  503.  Fights  battles  of  Trenton  and 
Princeton,  504.  Marches  south,  and  fights 
battles  of  Brandywine  and  Germantown, 
505.  Goes  into  winter-quarters  at  Valley 
Forge ;  sends  troops  to  Gates,  506.  The 
winter  at  Valley  Forge,  501.  Fights  battle 
of  Monmonth  Court-house,  and  takes  posi 
tion  at  White  Plains,  508.  Advises  Lincoln 
to  withdraw  from  Charleston,  511.  York- 
town  campaign,  515. 

Watertown,  opposes  taxation  by  assistants, 
345. 

Wayne,  Anthony,  repulsed  at  the  Brandy- 
wine,  and  surprised  at  Paoli,  505.  Cap 
tures  Stony  Point,  510.  Defeated  at  Green 
Springs,  515.  Clears  Georgia,  516. 

Weare,  Nathaniel,  agent  of  New  Hampshire, 
399, 400. 

Webb,  General,  in  command  at  Fort  Edward; 
fails  to  relieve  Fort  William  Henry,  308. 

Wedderburn,  Alexander,  attack  upon  Frank 
lin,  487. 

Weld,  Thomas,  verses  in  Psalm-book,  468. 

Welsh  in  Pennsylvania,  228. 

Wentworth,  Benning,  Governor  of  New 
Hampshire,  404.  Contest  with  Legislature ; 
Vermont  grants ;  prevents  sending  dele 
gates  to  Stamp  Act  Congress,  405. 

Wentworth  house  at  Portsmouth,  446. 

Wentworth,  John,  Lieutenant-governor  of 
New  Hampshire,  402. 

Wesley,  Charles,  career  in  Georgia,  190. 

Wesley,  John,  career  in  Georgia,  190. 

West,  Francis,  Governor  of  Virginia,  13. 

West,  Joseph,  Governor  of  South  Carolina, 
160. 

West  Point,  failure  of  scheme  to  betray,  511. 

Weymouth,  Captain,  voyage  to  New  Eng 
land,  2.  , 


Weymonth,  troubles  with  Plymouth,  342. 
Whalley,  Edward,  the  Regicide ;  takes  refuge 

in  New  England,  355. 
Wheelwright,  John,  ally  of  Mrs.  Hutchinsou, 

349.  Heretical  sermon,  and  banishment, 

350.  In  New  Hampshire,  351,  397. 

White,  Mr.,  merchant  of  Boston,  458. 

White,  Rev.  John,  connection   with  settle 
ment  of  Massachusetts,  342,  343. 

Whitefield,  George,  in  Georgia,  190.  Revival 
in  Massachusetts,  367.  Opposition  to,  in 
New  England,  427, 428. 

White  Plains,  battle  of,  503.  Washington  at, 
508. 

Whiting,  William,  agent  of  Connecticut,  380. 

Wiggin,  Thomas,  superintendent  in  New 
Hampshire,  397. 

Wigglesworth,  Michael,  denounces  long  hair, 
43S.  Poetry  of,  468,  469. 

Wilkinsouiaus,  sect  in  Rhode  Island,  423. 

Willard,  Samuel,  learning  of,  424.  Writings 
of,  470. 

William  and  Mary  College,  chartered,  25, 74. 
Condition  of,  75,  76. 

Williams,  James,  Colonel,  at  battle  of  King's 
Mountain,  512. 

Williams,  Otho,  General,  commands  light 
troops  on  Greene's  retreat,  513. 

Williams,  Roger,  arrival  of,  and  difficulties  in 
Massachusetts,  347.  Banished,348.  Founds 
Providence,  385.  Goes  to  England  for  pat 
ent,  386.  Returns  with  patent,  387.  Fails  to 
establish  patent  government ;  goes  to  Eng 
land  for  fresh  powers,  388.  President  under 
patent,  389.  Assistant  under  charter,  390. 
Controversy  with  Fox,  391.  Death  of,  392. 

Williamsburg,  description  of,  51, 52.  Season 
at,  83. 

Wilmington,  account  of,  240. 

Wilson,  John,  trouble  with  Mrs.  Hutchiuson, 

349.  Speech  at   Newtown  election,  350. 
Verses  of,  46S. 

Wingfield,  Edward  Maria,  character  of,  5. 

Winslow,  Edward,  agent  of  Massachusetts, 
387. 

Winslow,  John,  conquers  Acadia,  369. 

Wiuthrop,  Fitz-John,  Governor  of  Connecti 
cut  ;  death  of,  381. 

Wiuthrop,  John,  first  Governor  of  Massachu 
setts,  344.  Arrival;  dealings  with  Water- 
town  ;  rechosen  Governor,  345.  To  man 
age  war,  347.  Chosen  Governor  over  Vane, 

350.  Refuses  to  deliver  up  charter;  Gov 
ernor,  351.    Defeated  by  Endicott,  and  op 
posed  by  Essex  County,  352.    His  party 
recovers  supremacy;  death  of,  353.    Opin 
ion  as  to  marriage  ceremonies,  461.    Diary 
of,  46T. 


560 


INDEX. 


Winthrop,  John,  the  younger ;  arrival  with 
commission  from  Lord  Say-and-Sele,  34S. 
Founds  Saybrook,  373.  Chosen  Governor 
of  Connecticut ;  obtains  charter,  3T6.  Re 
monstrates  against  absorption  of  New 
Haven ;  progress  under  as  Governor,  377. 
Death  of,  378.  Dealings  with  Clarke,  389. 
Scientific  tastes  of,  472. 

Wise,  Rev.  John,  resistance  to  Andros,  360. 

Witchcraft  in  Virginia,  55;  in  Pennsylva 
nia,  253.  Of  Salem,  contrasted  with  ne 
gro  plot,  321.  In  New  York,  330.  In  New 
England,  434. 

Witt,  Dr.,  astrologer,  253. 

Wolcott,  Roger,  Lieutenant-governor  of 
Connecticut,  382.  Commands  Connecti 
cut  troops  at  Louisbnrg,  383. 

Wolfe,  General  James,  takes  Lonisburg  and 
Quebec,  309,  370. 

Woolman,  John,  efforts  against  slavery,  241. 

Wooster,  General,  in  command  in  Canada, 
496. 

Worcester,  description  of,  452. 

Wright,  Sir  Jame?,  Governor  of  Georgia, 
196. 

Wyatt,  Sir  Francis,  Governor  of  Virginia,  and 
legislation  under,  11.  Continued  in  office ; 


character  of  his  administration,  12.    Re- 

appotuted  Governor,  14. 
Wyngaard,  Lucas,  funeral  of,  338. 
Wyoming,  massacre  at,  509. 

Y. 

YALE  COLLEGE,  founded  and  encouraged,  382. 
Classes  arranged  by  social  position,  445. 
Account  of,  4G6. 

Yeamans,  Sir  John,  leads  settlers  from  Bar- 
badoes  to  North  Carolina,  135.  Governor 
of  Southern  County,  136.  Governor  of 
South  Carolina,  160. 

Yeardley,  George,  Deputy-governor  of  Vir 
ginia,  8.  Governor,  9.  His  administra 
tion,  9, 10.  Governor,  and  death  of,  13. 

Yonge,  Francis,  agent  of  South  Carolina,  165. 

York,  account  of,  239. 

York,  Duke  of  (James  II.),  grants  New  Jer 
sey  to  Berkeley  and  Carteret,  263.  At 
tempts  to  get  it  back,  264-267.  Laws  of, 
in  New  York,  296.  Charter  of,  to  New 
York,  298. 

Yorktown,  battle  and  surrender  of,  515. 

Z. 

ZENGKB,  PETBB,  trial  for  libel,  233, 304. 


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LIBRARY,  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  DAVIS 

Book  SHp-25nt-6,'66(G3S53b4)458 


N°  473266 

E188 
Lodge,  H.C.  L82 

A  short  history  of  the  1900 
English  colonies  in 
America. 


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UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
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